RJ's Inspiration #013 🌦
RJ's Inspiration
weekly viz to inspire you too
🌦 D-DAY WEATHER
75 years ago a weather forecast persuaded General Eisenhower to delay the D-Day landing. This June 4 synoptic chart helped predict a June 5 storm and forecast a break the following day that would allow Operation Overlord to go ahead on June 6, 1944. Some of the data that helped inform the forecast came from a daring RAF squadron that flew missions into storms and enemy fire to collect and radio back information. Other meteorological data came from Nazi observations, one of the fruits of the Allies cracking the Enigma code. It has been called the most important weather forecast in history.
The D-Day charts excite me in so many ways: We should not take data for granted. Visualization has played a significant role in history, especially when paired with powerful persuaders and important audiences. Hand drawn visualization, even when drawn rapidly, can do the job. Lots of impactful 20th century visualization is just getting popular attention as it steps into the light from war archives. The history of meteorological visualization is rich with discoveries enabled only by extraordinary data collection efforts and visualization that enabled pattern identification.
Read more about this story at the BBCÂ and see all of the weather charts at the Met Office (the United Kingdom's national weather service). I first heard of this story from climate scientist and visualization extraordinaire Ed Hawkins (Twitter).
👉 ARE YOU ENJOYING THIS SERIES?
Please reply directly to share your favorite viz, offer any advice for how this newsletter experiment can be improved, or say hello. -RJ