THE "royal progress" was a seasonal feature of life in Britain in the 16th century. With the approach of summer, the Court in London was uprooted and the monarch led the entire royal household on a leisurely tour, or "progress", through the English countryside, lodging at many of the great rural estates along the way.
Faint, lingering shadows of this ancient custom can sometimes be discerned in the modern world of meteorology. This week, for example, the Irish Meteorological Society goes on progress to the City of the Broken Treaty.
Specifically, the occasion is the annual guest lecture of the society, which will take place tomorrow evening in Room 203 of the Geography Department of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick. The speaker will be Professor Alan Thorpe of Reading University, and his chosen specialised subject is FASTEX, that grand experiment taking place a few miles down the road at Shannon Airport.
FASTEX, the Fronts and Atlantic Storm Tracks Experiment, is a major international study of the dynamics of the familiar depressions that form over the North Atlantic and bring rain and strong winds to Ireland and to western Europe. The objective is to put these phenomena under the microscope - to assemble in the case of each depression that appears during January and February this year a vast body of data that will allow its structure to be analysed subsequently in the minutest detail.
The logistics are impressive. Several weather ships have been specially deployed in the Atlantic; half a dozen research aircraft are ready to fly in to the heart of any depression that may appear; weather buoys have been launched for the occasion; frequent radiosonde balloon ascents are taking place, notably at Valentia Observatory in Co Kerry; and a team of several dozen world class scientists are assembled for the duration at the operations centre at Shannon Airport.
The project involves the combined efforts MeteoFrance, the UK Met Office, several US institutions and our own Met Eireann, and is by far the most ambitious scientific project ever undertaken in this country.
There is however, just one snag. Since the experiment was launched at the beginning of January, there has, unusually, not been a single storm of note in the Atlantic, and most of the area of interest has been dominated by a massive, peaceful anticyclone.
The team is discouraged, of course, but so far not despairing and is praying fervently for February tempests.
In the meantime, if you care to come along at 8 p.m. tomorrow night, Prof. Thorpe will tell you all you need to know about what is, so far, what might have been.