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Maureen Sweeney, weather watcher who influenced D-Day plans, dies at 100
Maureen Sweeney, weather watcher who influenced D-Day plans, dies at 100
Ms. Sweeney’s weather data from western Ireland offered the first clues of a major storm, leading to a one-day delay in the D-Day invasion in 1944
By Brian Murphy
December 20, 2023 at 8:35 p.m. EST
Maureen Flavin and Ted Sweeney on their wedding day in 1946. (Courtesy of Fergus Sweeney)
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No can do. I'm all out for the month.
Before dawn on June 3, 1944, a postal clerk in Ireland’s County Mayo checked her weather gauges. A storm was coming fast. The barometer readings were dropping. The wind, pouring off a low-pressure zone in the mid-Atlantic, was slicing through the drizzle in the village of Blacksod.
She double-checked the observations. They then were passed along until finally they reached Britain’s Met Office, which since 1939 had used the Blacksod post office as one of its weather stations. Blacksod carried particular importance. Its position on Ireland’s northwestern coast was often an early warning of Atlantic weather systems headed for Britain.
The data collected that morning was the most significant yet. About 7,000 ships and landing craft, 11,000 aircraft and more than 130,000 Allied troops were amassed for Operation Overlord, the invasion into Nazi-occupied France. The only missing puzzle piece was the weather forecast for the English Channel to decide if June 5 would be D-Day.
The storm observations from County Mayo were the first indications of trouble ahead. The invasion was postponed until June 6. And the postal worker — 21-year-old Maureen Flavin — became part of World War II lore as a linchpin in the weather team whose work persuaded commanders to hold off for 24 hours the air-and-sea assault that helped change the course the war.
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The weather station and post office in Blacksod, Ireland, in the 1940s. (Courtesy of Fergus Sweeney)
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The Blacksod lighthouse was Maureen Sweeney's home from the 1940s until the mid-1970s. It's at the southern end of the Mullet Peninsula in County Mayo, Ireland. (Courtesy of Fergus Sweeney)
{snip}
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks to paratroopers in England just before the first assault in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. (AFP/Getty Images)
{snip}
Share
Not this time
By Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. Murphy has reported from more than 50 countries and has written four books. Twitter https://twitter.com/BrianFMurphy
Ms. Sweeney’s weather data from western Ireland offered the first clues of a major storm, leading to a one-day delay in the D-Day invasion in 1944
By Brian Murphy
December 20, 2023 at 8:35 p.m. EST
Maureen Flavin and Ted Sweeney on their wedding day in 1946. (Courtesy of Fergus Sweeney)
Share
No can do. I'm all out for the month.
Before dawn on June 3, 1944, a postal clerk in Ireland’s County Mayo checked her weather gauges. A storm was coming fast. The barometer readings were dropping. The wind, pouring off a low-pressure zone in the mid-Atlantic, was slicing through the drizzle in the village of Blacksod.
She double-checked the observations. They then were passed along until finally they reached Britain’s Met Office, which since 1939 had used the Blacksod post office as one of its weather stations. Blacksod carried particular importance. Its position on Ireland’s northwestern coast was often an early warning of Atlantic weather systems headed for Britain.
The data collected that morning was the most significant yet. About 7,000 ships and landing craft, 11,000 aircraft and more than 130,000 Allied troops were amassed for Operation Overlord, the invasion into Nazi-occupied France. The only missing puzzle piece was the weather forecast for the English Channel to decide if June 5 would be D-Day.
The storm observations from County Mayo were the first indications of trouble ahead. The invasion was postponed until June 6. And the postal worker — 21-year-old Maureen Flavin — became part of World War II lore as a linchpin in the weather team whose work persuaded commanders to hold off for 24 hours the air-and-sea assault that helped change the course the war.
{snip}
The weather station and post office in Blacksod, Ireland, in the 1940s. (Courtesy of Fergus Sweeney)
{snip}
The Blacksod lighthouse was Maureen Sweeney's home from the 1940s until the mid-1970s. It's at the southern end of the Mullet Peninsula in County Mayo, Ireland. (Courtesy of Fergus Sweeney)
{snip}
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks to paratroopers in England just before the first assault in the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. (AFP/Getty Images)
{snip}
Share
Not this time
By Brian Murphy
Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. Murphy has reported from more than 50 countries and has written four books. Twitter https://twitter.com/BrianFMurphy