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Philip Eden – A Weather Pioneer and True Amateur

Here is a man I am honoured to have known and been able to call 'my friend'. He is Philip Eden and he was a giant in that fuzzy world of pro-am meteorology.

I refer to Philip as an 'amateur weatherman' because that is what he was; as am I. I use 'amateur' in the real sense of the word. It goes beyond doing a job, but as one who engages in the subject firstly and above all for the love of it. Think of Patrick Moore, another amateur for whom astronomy was his first love, not his profession.

Philip was awash with weather and climate. It ran through his veins. Conversations with Philip about  weather and climate always led to some fascinating fact being espoused and setting ones mind thinking about the wonders of the weather machine. What a testament to the man that one got excited when hearing his voice knowing that you were in the presence of a real expert.

Never having worked in the Meteorological Office Philip was considered to be a renegade by those for whom meteorology is merely a profession. Of course, there are many 'amateurs' within the Meteorological Office too, and during discussions about data, forecasting and the future of meteorology such fellow renegades sided with Philip 🙂

He studied the MSc in Applied Meteorology and Climatology at the University of Birmingham; the very same course that I studied and of which I am proud to now be Honorary Lecturer for the Weather Forecasting module.

But that was about the limit of his (and my) 'official' training. He knew what he knew by reading books, observing the weather from being a small boy and then applying his knowledge in the private sector world of forecasting.

When Philip started commercial forecasting in the 1970's it was due to the growth of North Sea oil companies which sought an alternative to Met Office forecasts for their operations. He became LBC's on-air weatherman in the 1980's and then BBC Radio 5 Live when many of you will remember hearing his voice. He also wrote regular weather columns for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday telegraph as well as many other publications.

He was a cricket enthusiast, contributing weather information to Wisden's.

Philip also started the Chilterns Observatory Trust (what's happened to that now?). The Trust was established with the intention of preserving weather instrumentation at the observatory and we had many conversations about this. On visiting Philip ten-years or more ago, he took me for lunch. I'd taken him (on loan to the Trust) a full size Munro Anemometer and Wind Direction gauge (which I believe had once been installed at Heathrow Airport) and which I had acquired from a private weather observer. We had a superb afternoon of weather talk, discussing how we could work together more closely (which we did with Philip providing some climatological data for my clients) and where meteorology would be heading gin the future.

Philip was a voice of reason in a quagmire of weather and climate nonsense. Not for him 'record breaking temperatures', 'almost lowest/highest,wettest' etc... or that dreaded phrase 'since records began'. If he did use such intonations it was always qualified with a statement about how far back such records stretched and who had made them.

He was a 'fully signed up global warming member', but he hated individual extreme weather events being used to justify climate change. Another point we agreed on.

The picture below is taken from the Royal Meteorological Society short obituary to Philip. He became Vice President on the Society, what an honour for an amateur! Again paving the way for, what I hope will be others, to follow.

Philip will be sorely missed and his passing leaves a huge hole in meteorology for those 'weather anoraks' amongst us who are true weather enthusiasts.

May he forever measure rainfall at 9am, gazing at the clouds from above, not below!

 

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