Weather Eye was saddened to hear that Ted Sweeney of Belmullet passed away some days ago. For many years before 1956, when the Meteorological Service opened an official weather station at Belmullet, Ted Sweeney and his mother, in addition to running the local post office, also provided regular weather observations of excellent quality for use in weather forecasting. One of these weather reports, in June 1944, was destined to influence the course of history.
That month final plans were being laid for the Normandy landings, the beginning of the end of the second World War.
The weather, naturally enough, was a vital part of the equation. For surface operations in the English Channel, light winds, good visibility and relatively calm seas were a necessity; for the thousands of aircraft involved low cloud in any appreciable quantity could not be tolerated; and it was also desirable that the initial landings took place with the assistance of moonlight and a rising tide.
These last two conditions could be met only within a short window of opportunity from June 5th to 7th inclusive, and a provisional decision was made to opt for June 5th.
But the weather around that time was unusually disturbed. Moreover, with most of the northern hemisphere in a state of war, the information available to weather forecasters was very sparse; those responsible for forecasting for D-Day had weather reports from Spain and Portugal, from Ireland and Britain, and from a small selection of stations in North America, Iceland and Greenland - but little else. Most of mainland Europe, and the Atlantic Ocean, comprised one vast meteorological blank.
Early indications were that the weather on June 5th would be favourable. But a report from the Sweeneys at Blacksod Point in the early hours of June 3rd changed everything.
It indicated that an active - and totally unexpected - cold front had just crossed the northwest coast of Ireland. It was obvious that a deep depression lay between Iceland and Scotland, and that the cold front was likely to be over the battle area at the crucial time the following day - bringing rain and strong winds with it.
On the advice of the forecasters, Operation Overlord was postponed until June 6th.
Sure enough, rain and force 7 winds affected the English Channel around the time for which the invasion had originally been planned. By June 6th, however, the depression had lost much of its intensity, the cold front had passed the battle area, and the weather was sufficiently good not to interfere with operations.
