Daily shipping forecasts had been available to the Royal Navy from about 1854, while its first formal meteorological course followed in 1912. Learning what weather information aviation required took further development, and meteorological officers gained greater importance in naval planning during the 1930s. A daily update could not tell an airship crew how a nearby storm had changed over the preceding minutes or hours. Useful support also required predictions about the storm's movement and the heights at which an aircraft might avoid it. A larger and better-funded airship programme might have supported specialist teams at each base, but that would have required more trained personnel as well as equipment.
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Why aviation needed more than a daily shipping forecast
Airship operations demanded recent storm positions, forecasts of changing conditions, and advice on flying height, increasing the importance of specialist weather teams.