Ronaldsway Met Office has a long history dating back to when the field was HMS Urley. The first observations were taken from a barn to the SE of the airfield, near to where the fire station is now, on May 7^th 1946, with a proper home on the 1^st floor of the control tower established a few weeks later. Observations have been made every hour of every day since, 24/7, including Christmas.

The meteorologists in those days were under the UK Air Ministry, and they needed to be hardy types. With electrical thermometers and cloud-base recorders not to come into use until 1972, observers would have to go out to the instrument enclosure on the airfield every hour (more when the airport was open) to take readings, day & night, in whatever conditions. Of course, the worse the conditions, the more important it was to go out and measure them! Indoors was not much better, as there was no heating in the control tower building. In 1959, Air Ministry management gave in to pressure and provided staff with a paraffin heater for the office, and a duffle coat – just one for all staff to share. 2 years later they found funds for one oilskin, one pair of boots (big enough for anybody’s feet), and one souwester!

Celsius replaced Fahrenheit in 1961, and in June 1964 forecasts were issued to Manx Radio for the first time. This was the start of The Met Office taking on more of an ‘Isle of Man Weather Centre’ role, in addition to its aviation duties.

In 1965 the Isle Of Man Airports Board took over from the Air Ministry, and the staff became IOM Civil Servants, and soon started providing warnings to the highway board and other agencies.

Airport Security began in 1973 with night-duty observers being asked to lock the door behind them when they went out for the observations.

Satellite, radar and computer technology revolutionised forecasting in the 1980’s and 90’s, with a huge leap in the confidence of predictions, and the internet increased the speed with which observations could be sent out, and forecast data sent back. In 2007 Ronaldsway forecaster Brian Rae was awarded an MBE for his services to the community and meteorology.

Observers bench, 1963

These days, Ronaldsway is located in Viscount House, and still has a long standing relationship with the UK Met Office, with access to their model data to be interpreted locally by our own duty forecasters. Met services are now more accessible than ever, with 10s of thousands of hits to the weather page at www.gov.im/weather , and unlike the UK, any member of the public can call and speak to a forecaster direct.  Forecasts and weather data services are provided to many customers outside of aviation, in areas such as shipping, agriculture and construction. By providing advance warnings of severe weather and tidal flooding to agencies such as the DoI and emergency services, they can have staff and resources on hand, ready to deal with issues as they happen, which reduces disruption for us all and gets the Island moving again as quickly as possible. With over 75 years of continuous high quality measurements, the Ronaldsway dataset is an invaluable resource to monitor our changing climate.

Forecasters bench, 1963

Email address:  weather@gov.im

Website:  https://www.gov.im/weather/

For further information and updates to forecasts, telephone:

• Recorded Weather Forecast (updated six times each day): 0900 624 3300
• Recorded Shipping Forecast (updated five times each day): 0900 624 3322
• WeatherMann - speak to a Forecaster (24hrs): 0900 624 3200

Calls cost 50p per minute plus your phone company's access charge.