Weather or Not: How a weather forecast changed the course of history

How the D-Day weather forecast helped lead to a successful invasion of Normady

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWS NOW): Today marks 80 years since the allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6th, 1944. But did you know that the invasion of Normandy almost didn’t happen because of weather?

General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Allied forces had a window of June 5th through the 7th to get the invasion in. Why such a short window? They needed a full moon and low tides for optimal ship landing and navigation. They also needed calmer wind and clearing skies, making the weather forecast critical. June 5th was actually the original date planned for the invasion, but there was a strong area of low pressure that dropped a powerful cold front with gusty winds and rain right over the English Channel. The Allied forces weather forecasters, lead by Group Captain James Stagg, made the call to delay the invasion to the 6th. Stagg was confident that the system would exit and there would be enough of a window between power storm systems to get the invasion in without major weather disruptions. On June 6th, he was proven right. Though the weather was barely tolerable, there was a enough of a window in the worst conditions to allow the invasion to proceed successfully.

This forecast, maybe the most impactful weather forecast in the history of the world, was done to near perfection by Group Captain Stagg and the Allied forces. The German forecasters did not anticipate the break in the weather and this helped lead to even further the element of surprise.