Weathermen duked it out days before D-Day
Captain Doug Morris
B787 training captain/certified meteorologist/author/freelance writer/weather instructor
Toronto’s Royal Alexandria Theatre recently hosted a weather-themed play, Pressure. The allied forces, led by General Eisenhower, wanted to pounce on France’s Normandy beaches on June 5th, 1944. But British meteorologist, James Stagg, convinced the Allies to delay the attack by one day. Stagg knew North Atlantic weather patterns and fully understood the impact of inclement weather. But American weatherman Irving Krick postulated good weather based on historical weather patterns. Stagg won out, delaying the invasion by a day, making it one of the most critical weather forecasts ever.
The play had the right amount of weather talk and included a side fling between Eisenhower and the secretary. Who knew weather and romance could exist in the same sentence?
Technically speaking, the playwright did their weather research, but the backdrop weather map was mislabeled with three millibar separation. The play’s program and advertising had it right, with diagrams labeled every four millibars.
Incidentally, the D in D-Day is a coded designation used for the day of any vital invasion or military operation.