When did weather records begin

A. I see what you're getting at. This has been Britain's wettest spring since records began and the phrase since records began is being bandied about a bit. Short answer: 1766 or thereabouts.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Q. How do you know

A. The Meteorological Office says so. It must be right.

Q. But who were the first weather forecasters

A. A couple of famous names. Dr John Rutty is one. He was born in Wiltshire in 1697, moving to Dublin in 1724 after qualifying as a doctor. His detailed weather records compiled over the next 40 years led to a book called The Weather and Seasons in Dublin for Forty Years, published in 1770. And there's Thomas Jefferson ...

Q. Not the Thomas Jefferson

A. Indeed. Jefferson, third president of the United States, was deeply interested in science and kept a daily record of the weather from 1776 to 1826. Jefferson noted the temperature in Philadelphia was 76 degrees when he and America's founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on 4 July, 1776. The Thomas Jefferson Award is made every year to volunteers who do most to help America's National Weather Service. Congress set up the Weather Bureau on 1 July, 1891. But I expect you want to know more about Britain's weather forecasters

Q. Yes. A history of the Met Office, please.

A. OK then. The Met Office was formed in 1854 as department within the Board of Trade to provide meteorological and sea information to mariners. Its boss was Captain Robert FitzRoy, famed for commanding HMS Beagle on Charles Darwin's historic expedition. Storms warnings were soon being issued to ports and forecasts began appearing it the press. By the First World War, rapid developments in meteorology led to the establishment of an outstation at South Farnborough to advise pilots. Getting the weather right became a vital battle weapon and by the start of the Second World War, high-altitude balloon-borne sensors transmitted pressure, temperature and humidity data.

Q. And in the television age

A. Yes. The first live TV weather forecasts were in 1954. London Weather Centre opened in 1959. The computer age started with the installation of an electronic device at the Met Office's new HQ in Bracknell in 1962. The first operational cloud pictures from satellites became available in 1964.

Q. And this is all government-funded

A. Yes. The Met Office became a Ministry of Defence executive agency in April 1990. By 1996 it became a 'trading fund', the closest a government department can get to a commercial company. Nowadays, the Met Office no longer focused on just the weather but also examines the impact of the weather on the environment.

Q. So is it going to get any wetter

A. Looks like it. The Met Office thinks so. More flooding is on the way. The country is waterlogged.

Q. What can we do about it

A. Well, we can keep talking about it. It's Britain's favourite topic of conversation. Or we could take the advice of that early Irish forecaster, Dr Rutty. He said: 'Beware of blaspheming in relation to the weather; it is a vulgar and impious practice.'

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By Steve Cunningham