Royal Meteorological Society

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The Royal Meteorological Society is an organization that promotes academic and public engagement in weather and climate science. Fellows of the Society must possess relevant qualifications, but Members can be lay enthusiasts. It publishes various journals, including the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society. The chief executive officer is Liz Bentley.

Constitution

The Royal Meteorological Society traces its origins back to 3 April 1850 when the British Meteorological Society was formed as "a society the objects of which should be the advancement and extension of meteorological science by determining the laws of climate and of meteorological phenomena in general". Along with nine others, including James Glaisher, John Drew, Edward Joseph Lowe, The Revd Joseph Bancroft Reade, and Samuel Charles Whitbread, Dr John Lee, an astronomer, of Hartwell House, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire founded in the library of his house the British Meteorological Society, which became the Royal Meteorological Society.[http://www.rmets.org/pdf/metsocearlymembers.pdf Early members of the society] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120804104539/http://www.rmets.org/pdf/metsocearlymembers.pdf |date=4 August 2012 }} It became The Meteorological Society in 1866, when it was incorporated by Royal Charter, and the Royal Meteorological Society in 1883, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria granted the privilege of adding 'Royal' to the title. Along with 74 others, the famous meteorologist Luke Howard joined the original 15 members of the Society at its first ordinary meeting on 7 May 1850. As of 2008 it has more than 3,000 members worldwide. The chief executive of the Society is Professor Liz Bentley. Paul Hardaker previously served as chief executive from 2006 to 2012.{{Cite journal|title=An interview with Professor Paul Hardaker, the new Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society |journal=Weather|volume=61|publisher=Royal Meteorological Society|issue=11|date=16 January 2007|pages=299|doi=10.1002/wea.2006611102|s2cid=247674671}}

Membership

There are four membership categories:

Honorary Fellow
Fellow (FRMetS){{cite book|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Abbreviations|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=176}}
Member
Corporate member

Awards

The society regularly awards a number of medal and prizes, of which the Symons Gold Medal (established in 1901) and the Mason Gold Medal (established in 2006) are pre-eminent. The two medals are awarded alternately.

Other awards include the Buchan Prize, the Hugh Robert Mill Award, the L F Richardson Prize, the Michael Hunt Award, the Fitzroy Prize, the Gordon Manley Weather Prize, the International Journal of Climatology Prize, the Society Outstanding Service Award and the Vaisala Award.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rmets.org/our-activities/awards/details-our-awards|title=Royal Meteorological Society|access-date=18 August 2015|archive-date=28 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828060604/https://www.rmets.org/our-activities/awards/details-our-awards|url-status=live}}

Journals

The society has a number of regular publications:{{cite web |url=http://www.rmets.org/publications/journals |title=Publications – Royal Meteorological Society |access-date=28 December 2019 |archive-date=1 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801053933/https://www.rmets.org/publications/journals |url-status=live }}

Atmospheric Science Letters: a monthly journal that provides a peer-reviewed publication route for new shorter contributions in the field of atmospheric and closely related sciences.
Weather: a monthly journal with many full colour illustrations and photos for specialists and general readers with an interest in meteorology. It uses a minimum of mathematics and technical language.
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society: one of the world's leading journals for meteorology, publishing original research in the atmospheric sciences. There are eight issues per year.
Meteorological Applications: this is a journal for applied meteorologists, forecasters and users of meteorological services and has been published since 1994. It is aimed at a general readership and authors are asked to take this into account when preparing papers.
International Journal of Climatology: has 15 issues a year and covers a broad spectrum of research in climatology.
WIREs Climate Change: a journal about climate change
Geoscience Data Journal: an online, open-access journal.
Climate Resilience and Sustainability: an interdisciplinary, open-access journal.

All publications are available online but a subscription is required for some. However certain "classic" papers are freely available on the Society's website.{{cite web |url=https://www.rmets.org/classic-papers |title=Classic Papers |access-date=28 December 2019 |archive-date=28 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228110124/https://www.rmets.org/classic-papers |url-status=live }}

Local centres and special interest groups

The society has several local centres across the UK.{{Cite web |url=http://www.rmets.org/about-us/local-centres |title=Local Centres |access-date=8 January 2014 |archive-date=29 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180829024217/https://www.rmets.org/about-us/local-centres |url-status=live }}

There are also a number of special interest groups which organise meetings and other activities to facilitate exchange of information and views within specific areas of meteorology.{{Cite web |url=http://www.rmets.org/about-us/special-interest-groups |title=Special Interest Groups |access-date=8 January 2014 |archive-date=27 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180827224923/https://www.rmets.org/about-us/special-interest-groups |url-status=live }} These are informal groups of professionals interested in specific technical areas of the profession of meteorology. The groups are primarily a way of communicating at a specialist level.

Presidents

Source:{{cite web |url=https://www.rmets.org/history |access-date=2021-08-15 |title=History of the Society: RMetS Past Presidents |author=Royal Meteorological Society |archive-date=12 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112224248/https://www.rmets.org/history |url-status=live }}

1850–1853: Samuel Charles Whitbread, first time
1853–1855: George Leach
1855–1857: John Lee
1857–1858: Robert Stephenson
1859–1860: Thomas Sopwith
1861–1862: Nathaniel Beardmore
1863–1864: Robert Dundas Thomson, died in office{{cite DNB|wstitle=Thomson, Robert Dundas}}
1864: Samuel Charles Whitbread, second time
1865–1866: Charles Brooke
1867–1868: James Glaisher
1869–1870: Charles Vincent Walker
1871–1872: John William Tripe
1873–1875: Robert James Mann
1876–1877: Henry Storks Eaton
1878–1879: Charles Greaves
1880–1881: George James Symons, first time
1882–1883: Sir John Knox Laughton
1884–1885: Robert Henry Scott
1886–1887: William Ellis
1888–1889: William Marcet
1890–1891: Baldwin Latham
1892–1893: Charles Theodore Williams, first time
1894–1895: Richard Inwards
1896–1897: Edward Mawley
1898–1899: Francis Campbell Bayard
1900: George James Symons, second time; died in office{{cite DNB|wstitle=Symons, George James|supplement=1}}
1900: Charles Theodore Williams, second time{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Royal Meteorological Society|date=27 February 1900 |page=5 |issue=36076}}
1901–1902: William Henry Dines
1903–1904: Captain Sir David W. Barker
1905–1906: Richard Bentley
1907–1908: Hugh Robert Mill
1910–1911: Henry Mellish
1911–1912: Henry Newton Dickson
1913–1914: Charles John Philip Cave, first time
1915–1917: Sir Henry George Lyons
1918–1919: Sir Napier Shaw
1920–1921: Reginald Hawthorn Hooker
1922–1923: Charles Chree
1924–1925: Charles John Philip Cave, second time
1926–1927: Sir Gilbert Walker
1928–1929: Richard Gregory
1930–1931: Rudolf Gustav Karl Lempfert
1932–1933: Sydney Chapman
1934–1935: Ernest Gold
1936–1937: Francis John Welsh Whipple
1938–1939: Sir Bernard A. Keen
1940–1941: Sir George Clarke Simpson
1942–1944: David Brunt
1945–1946: Gordon Manley
1947–1949: G. M. B. Dobson
1949–1951: Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt
1951–1953: Sir Charles Normand
1953–1955: Sir Graham Sutton
1955–1957: Reginald Sutcliffe
1957–1959: Percival Albert Sheppard
1959–1961: James Martin Stagg
1961–1963: Howard Latimer Penman
1963–1965: John Stanley Sawyer
1965–1967: G. D. Robinson
1967–1968: F. Kenneth Hare
1968–1970: John Mason
1970–1972: Frank Pasquill
1972–1974: Robert B. Pearce
1974–1976: Raymond Hide
1976–1978: John T. Houghton
1978–1980: John Monteith
1980–1982: Philip Goldsmith
1982–1984: Henry Charnock
1984–1986: Andrew Gilchrist
1986–1988: Richard S. Scorer
1988–1990: Keith Anthony Browning
1990–1992: Stephen Austen Thorpe
1992–1994: Paul James Mason
1994–1996: John E. Harries
1996–1998: David J. Carson
1998–2000: Sir Brian Hoskins
2000–2002: David Burridge
2002–2004: Howard Cattle
2004–2006: Chris Collier
2006–2008: Geraint Vaughan
2008–2010: Julia Slingo
2010–2012: Tim Palmer
2012–2014: Joanna Haigh
2014–2016: Jennie Campbell
2016–2018: Ellie Highwood
2018–2020: David Warrilow{{cite web | url = https://www.rmets.org/news/new-president-takes-office | title = New President takes up office | date = 2018-10-01 | publisher = Royal Meteorological Society | access-date = 2019-01-02 | archive-date = 12 April 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190412111523/https://www.rmets.org/news/new-president-takes-office | url-status = live }}
2020–2022: David Griggs{{Cite web |url=https://www.rmets.org/news/new-president-and-vice-presidents-take-office |title=New President and Vice-Presidents take up office |date=2020-09-30 |publisher=Royal Meteorological Society |access-date=2021-08-15 |archive-date=15 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815202046/https://www.rmets.org/news/new-president-and-vice-presidents-take-office |url-status=live }}

Notable fellows

John Farrah (1849–1907).{{cite web |title=Fellows |url=https://www.rmets.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/memlist1900.pdf |website=rmets.org |publisher=Royal Meteorological Society |access-date=15 May 2021 |pages=11 |archive-date=15 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515152210/https://www.rmets.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/memlist1900.pdf |url-status=live }}