The Meteorologist Who Changed the Course of D-Day

"If he had been wrong with the forecast," said Peter Stagg from his home near Bordeaux, "I could have been sitting in German-occupied France, not liberated France."

Peter was referring to the critical role his father, Captain James Stagg, played in freeing France from Nazi occupation.

Though not a general or infantry soldier, Captain Stagg was the pivotal figure in the hours leading up to one of World War II’s most significant moments.

On June 6, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded over 150,000 Allied troops to storm the beaches of Normandy in one of history’s largest amphibious assaults. But hours before the attack, Eisenhower’s focus was not on the battlefield but on the weather report in front of him. The meteorologist who prepared that forecast—described by his son as a "stern and irritable Scotsman"—had to be absolutely right.

"The weather forecast was a go or no-go," explained Catherine Ross, head of the Met Office’s library and archives. "Everything else was set in place."