Well, the OED is stumped! Here's the reply I got to my email...
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*From
ASK OXFORD <
[email protected]>
Thank you for your enquiry to Ask Oxford.
Like you, I am having great difficulty finding any
reliable information about the derivation of the
term VOLMET.
I have found a paper on the Internet written by
Cook and Benest at the University of York
which mentions and describes the service, and
refers to a paper which is cited as
'Lamel, L.F., Gauvain, J.L., Prouts, B., Boutier, C.
& Boesch, R. (1993) "Generation and Synthesis
of Broadcast Messages", Proceedings ESCA-NATO
Workshop: Applications of'.
I do not know whether there might be any information
there that might help.
There is an article in the Irish Times of 31 August 1993
which espouses the derivation from French vol, but it
does not say on what authority this is based.
According to an article in the Times of 7 Dec. 1982,
VOLMET was then quite a new system, being still read
out by an operator, but was expected soon to be
automated. An advertisement placed by Marconi
Defence and Space Systems in the Times of 1 Sept 1980
announces the introduction of the VOLMET system at
Heathrow. The system was to be on show at the Marconi
stand at Farnborough. Perhaps someone at Marconi
would be able to settle the question.
I have not found the term in many online dictionaries, nor
have I found it explained in any of the sources I have
checked where the term is used. Of the two explanations
I have found, one (from a site called 'Acronym Finder')
gives the 'definition' 'Volume Meteorological', and the other
(at 'aussieaviation') calls it a 'French word meaning
"Flying Weather"'.
I am sorry to be unable to help further. If you should find
any more definite information, we would be most grateful
if you could pass it on to us, as it is possible we may
decide to draft an entry for the term at some future date.
Juliet E. A. Field (Mrs)
Senior Assistant Editor
Oxford English Dictionary
------------------------------------------------------------
So, there we go. Pprune's chance to make it into the dictionary!
R