Irving Krick's Weather Guide Joins the Collection
A Krick Weather Guide — the cloud-reading forecaster — has been added to the collection, and our history of its creator, meteorologist Irving P. Krick, has been considerably expanded.
Loading
A Krick Weather Guide — the cloud-reading forecaster — has been added to the collection, and our history of its creator, meteorologist Irving P. Krick, has been considerably expanded.
The collection has been expanded with an American Weather Guide, developed by meteorologist Dr. Irving P. Krick around 1950. This unusual mechanical cloud-reading forecaster predicts forthcoming weather from the observed combination of cloud formation, wind direction, season and climatic region.
At the same time, the history of Irving P. Krick on the website has been extensively revised and expanded. Particular attention is given to his unconventional analogue forecasting method, which attempted to predict future weather by matching current atmospheric patterns with similar situations found in decades of historical weather records.
The new material also examines one of the most controversial episodes of Krick’s career: the forecasting dispute immediately before the Normandy landings in June 1944. Krick and the American forecasting group initially expected favourable conditions for the planned landing on 5 June, while British forecasters warned of an approaching storm. The invasion was postponed by a day, and the severe weather on 5 June demonstrated the weakness of Krick’s analogue prediction on this crucial occasion. The episode became part of a much wider post-war controversy surrounding both Krick’s methods and his later claims concerning his role in the D-Day forecast.
In 2026, director Anthony Maras released Pressure, a historical drama centred on the crucial weather forecasting dispute before the D-Day landings in Normandy. Irving P. Krick, played by Chris Messina, is one of the key figures in the story. For anyone interested in Krick, the history of meteorology, or the role of weather forecasting in D-Day, I highly recommend the film.