Originally Posted by
Yellow Sun
With the best will in the world LB, but 42 Sqn deployed to Ascension, not on the spur of the moment, but to an operating base with which they were acquainted and visited on a regular basis. There may have been no contingency to retake the Falklands but there were plans in place to operate in the South Atlantic and it was some of these that were activated. I doubt that the C Met O would have been aware of any relevant contingency plans, other that in the broadest terms.
YS
Point taken. At that time Met was not operating a southern hemisphere numerical forecast model. I was an ex-programmer and also ex-Central Forecast Office southern hemisphere analyst, but latterly got near the sharper end, where my spiritual home had always been.
Certainly Met support for S hemisphere was pretty crude [upper winds were very much based on what previous aircraft had reported].
In a commendably short space of time the numerical model was extended to S hemisphere once the balloon went up. If there were contingency plans to extend south, they did not get much priority before the invasion..
The other area where C Met O should have been in the loop is the involvement of the Mobile Met Office: forecasters holding VR commissions, because he was their head honcho at one star level. I had a fair few MMU staff on my books [eleven stations] and there was precious little excitement in the early days.
But it was a long time ago and I do not trust my memory so I have to claim E & O. E!