The Scottish Meteorological Society’s contribution to the science

Founded in 1855, the Scottish Meteorological Society (SMS) set up and maintained a network of voluntary observing stations in Scotland, until the Met Office took over the responsibility in 1920 and the SMS amalgamated with the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) in January 1921. This climatological network provided the data to define the climate of Scotland, but during its period of existence the SMS achieved much more in relation to the development of the science of meteorology. A large part of this was due to the work and publications of Alexander Buchan, who was its paid Secretary from December 1860 until his death, aged 78, in 1907. In 1902 he was the first recipient of RMetS’s Symons Memorial Gold Medal, when he was described as “the most eminent British meteorologist.”

By the middle of the 19th century it was recognised that progress in the understanding of weather and climate required reliable and consistent observations on a global scale. In 1850 a British Meteorological Society (from 1866 the Meteorological Society, becoming in 1883 the Royal Meteorological Society) was founded in London, but its influence was little felt north of the border. In Scotland a number of individuals and organisations had kept daily weather records, but there was no systematic acquisition of meteorological data for Scotland. In 1854 Sir John Stuart Forbes and David Milne Home drew up a Prospectus of an Association for Promoting the Observation and Classification of Meteorological Phenomena in Scotland. At a public meeting on 11th July 1855, a Scottish Meteorological Society was formed. The Honorary Secretary was the Geographer Royal for Scotland, Alexander Keith Johnston.

Among the supporters was W Pitt Dundas, the newly appointed Registrar General for Scotland, who wished to include meteorological data in his quarterly reports. Dr James Stark, the Superintendent of Statistics in his department, took the initiative to write to known observers all over Scotland and provide them with a standard form on which to enter their observations. In 1856 he was appointed as the paid (but part-time) Secretary to the Society. He resigned in 1858, when he had created a network of more than 70 stations. There are manuscript monthly returns from the Scottish stations from 1857, and these have recently been digitally scanned by the Met Office. Books containing the Minutes of the Meetings of Council of the SMS exist, covering the period 1859–81, and these provide a great deal of information on the operation of the Society.

Measurements of air temperature require the thermometers to be shielded from direct radiation from the sun, but to allow air to pass over them as freely as possible. A great variety of thermometer screens was in use. The Council Minute Books show that in 1860 the Society was investigating the design of boxes with louvred sides to be used by their observers. At a Council Meeting in 1864 Thomas Stevenson, of the family of engineers to the Northern Lighthouse Board, demonstrated an improved model with double louvres, which could be obtained at a modest price from an Edinburgh firm. Details of the box were published in the Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society (JSMS). The screen was rapidly adopted by the Society’s observers, the Met Office used it at their telegraph observing stations from 1873, and in 1874 the Meteorological Society recommended that it should be used at their observing stations. The use of the stands spread widely through the far-flung British Empire in the late 19th century. The Stevenson screen is not perfect, but without it the task of comparing temperature records over the last 150 years would be much more difficult and contentious.

Alexander Buchan had been a schoolmaster, but suffered from a weak throat which caused difficulty when taking the large classes of that period. He was looking for a different career at the same time as the SMS was looking for a new paid Secretary, and he impressed the recruitment committee with his understanding of meteorological problems and their relation to physical science. He was the editor of the JSMS, which began publication in 1864, and which contained many of his papers. Along with the compilation of climatological statistics for Scotland and the whole of the British Isles, Buchan began researches into the relation between the surface pressure pattern over a wide area and the wind direction over Scotland, which could bring periods of unusual warmth or cold. With the invention of the electric telegraph in the late 1830s, and the subsequent rapid deployment of telegraph lines, it had become possible for weather observations to be collected in ‘real time’ over land areas. Admiral FitzRoy, Director of the Met Office, organised the collection of daily weather observations from a network of telegraph stations, and from 1863 he used these as a basis to provide storm warnings, but did not construct charts of surface pressure. However, from 1863 the Paris Observatory under Le Verrier published daily charts showing the isobars of surface pressure over a limited area of Europe.

To follow the progress of storms over the whole of Europe, Buchan carried out a retrospective analysis for October to December 1863, having collected a large amount of data from 14 different sources. Daily charts for 18 days over the period were published in 1865 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. These showed sea level isobars, the observed wind speed and direction, the difference of