THE BIG FREEZE. Today is the first day that I have seen my garden thermometer rise above zero in the past 14 days. If anyone has any pictures they would like to share on cloudobservers website then please send them in to colin@cloudobservers.co.uk
Click on the snowglobe to visit the downloads page to view the various cloudobservers information plus puzzles devised by Mairi & Pete
John "Bungy" Williams, as well as organising "Up Spirits", has also designed and produced cloudobservers Polo Shirts, Mugs and Plates which are now available on theCloudobs Shop page.
REUNION 2009 - Held at the Royal Maritime Club in Portsmouth from Friday 2nd to Monday 5th October.The cloudobservers team (back row) Peter Squibb, Arthur Charles and Colin Brenchley and (front row) Mairi Squibb, Gill Charles and Jean Brenchley. Missing from the group, was John "Bungy" Williams who designed the team's polo sweat shirts. At the time of this photo Bungy was busy organising "Up Spirits". Pictures of this popular part of the weekend, together with other pictures of old friends meeting up will be uploaded over the next few days on theReunion pictures page.
Go to the cloudobservers shop to view larger images of the mugs
WE'LL MEET AGAIN - Old Friends at the reunion - this is what it is all about - from left to right Faye Robinson, Dorothy Woolgar, Colin Brenchley, Alison Mathieson, Chris "Jan" Robinson, Jean Brenchley on a run ashore in Portsmouth. The photo was taken by John Woolgar, who was laying on his back to get an effective perspective into the shot. How the area has changed - The Keppels Head is now a "Family" Pub! A far cry from 40 years ago when this trio last had a run ashore when their ships were in dry dock!
The new FAA Memorial at Alrewas National Memorial Arboretum in Derbyshire was dedicated on 11th September 2009. Our thanks to Diane Horgan for sending this picture for us to share.
THE FORUM - For those of you that like a discussion in the Guest Book there is a new facility - THE FORUM - TO NAVIGATE TO THE FORUM CLICK ON THE PICTURE OF THE OLDE BUILDING TO THE RIGHTAND IT WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT THERE - Please give it a try - there is no fee to register to use the forum, we hope that it will be useful to you in grouping a subject together for mutual comments rather than trying to look through 100 plus guest book pages with over 1000 entries! It will also help by not clogging up the Guest Book. Plus you can also upload photographs into the Forum.
Pete Latham, who is a frequent visitor to the Forum has sent in this picture of work in a former life on HMS Eagle (circa 1967)before being a "Met Observer" he had the un-enviable task of crawling underneath aircraft to attach them to the hold back mechanism before being catapulted. There are also more images from Pete in the Carriers section.
Another frequent contributor to the pages of the Forum is Daniel Murphy who has supplied this photo of him at work on HMS Protector during 1966/67
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Current Satellite images of the UK - click onto this site thanks to the support of the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. Many of the members of the Met Branch will remember the images received from this site in the 60's when they were at the forefront of monitoring images from Meteorological Satellites. www.sat.dundee.ac.uk
WISH YOU WERE HERE - Travel was a major aspect of life in the RN and WRNS and so far we have mainly delved into the past. This section aims to look at what ex-METOC's are up to in the way of travel today. So please send in small articles and pictures of where you have been recently. This picture sent in by John & Dorothy Woolgar during a recent visit to Mexico and Guatemala. Send your items to colin@cloudobservers.co.uk
WRNS Section - This shot of the Halfar Bunnies was sent in by Ruth Beach - Do we have any names of those behind the masks? Further pictures in the WRNS Section
THE CARRIERS a selection of pictures depicting the largest of the Royal Navy ships that Met Ratings used to serve on. As sea-going Met Offices they had the largest staff usually consisting of 1 x Commander, 1 Lt Cdr, 1x Lt, 1 x CPO/PO then 1 x LA and 4 NA's in the old days or 5 x LA's. Most of the ratings served at some time in their careers on a Carrier and in their hayday there was always at least one carrier permanently on the Far East.
WWII Met Wrens (L to R) Dorothy Rickards (Davies), Edith Beaumont (Touzel) and Jean Atkins shown reminiscing about their wartime Met service during the reunion weekend at Portsmouth in September 2006. Go the the WRNS Section for the full story, sent to us by Celia Saywell.
Cloudobservers is a site dedicated to renewing and maintaining friendship amongst ex-serving members of the Meteorological Observer (later METOC) branch who served in the Royal Navy from the 50's up to the Millenium. The idea of a web site for retired Met Observers was thought about after contact was first made through the Servicepals.com website between Arthur Charles and Colin Brenchley in early 2004. Both had served in the Met Branch for 22 years and retired as CPOA(Met) in the late 80's. Details of how CloudObservers evolved and the Team responsible are detailed in the Comms Room.
We know of around 1500 names that served in the branch from the 1940's through to the 1990's - if you know any members please pass on the site address to them.
The LINKS page has numerous links to other associations that are closely aligned to cloudobservers and also to members websites who can provide services to other members/old friends. There is now the additional facility to link through to cloudobservers own AV collections of photographs from this page.
THE BIG FREEZE. Today is the first day that I have seen my garden thermometer rise above zero in the past 14 days. If anyone has any pictures they would like to share on cloudobservers website then please send them in to 
WE'LL MEET AGAIN - Old Friends at the reunion - this is what it is all about - from left to right Faye Robinson, Dorothy Woolgar, Colin Brenchley, Alison Mathieson, Chris "Jan" Robinson, Jean Brenchley on a run ashore in Portsmouth. The photo was taken by John Woolgar, who was laying on his back to get an effective perspective into the shot. How the area has changed - The Keppels Head is now a "Family" Pub! A far cry from 40 years ago when this trio last had a run ashore when their ships were in dry dock!
The new FAA Memorial at Alrewas National Memorial Arboretum in Derbyshire was dedicated on 11th September 2009. Our thanks to Diane Horgan for sending this picture for us to share.
Pete Latham, who is a frequent visitor to the Forum has sent in this picture of work in a former life on HMS Eagle (circa 1967)before being a "Met Observer" he had the un-enviable task of crawling underneath aircraft to attach them to the hold back mechanism before being catapulted. There are also more images from Pete in the 
Another frequent contributor to the pages of the Forum is Daniel Murphy who has supplied this photo of him at work on HMS Protector during 1966/67 
Current Satellite images of the UK - click onto this site thanks to the support of the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. Many of the members of the Met Branch will remember the images received from this site in the 60's when they were at the forefront of monitoring images from Meteorological Satellites. 
Cloudobservers is a site dedicated to renewing and maintaining friendship amongst ex-serving members of the Meteorological Observer (later METOC) branch who served in the Royal Navy from the 50's up to the Millenium. The idea of a web site for retired Met Observers was thought about after contact was first made through the Servicepals.com website between Arthur Charles and Colin Brenchley in early 2004. Both had served in the Met Branch for 22 years and retired as CPOA(Met) in the late 80's. Details of how CloudObservers evolved and the Team responsible are detailed in the Comms Room.
