Meteorology, Weather, and War in Southeast Asia: Malaya, c.1940–60

This article interrogates the positioning of British colonial meteorology in Malaysia and Singapore from the 1940s to 1960. This period spanned a global conflict and an internecine war, effecting profound socio-political changes from which neither country would emerge the same. The meteorological services were essential to Britain’s armed conflicts, providing vital weather information to the army, navy and especially, the air forces, as well as supporting the aviation and shipping industry often in difficult and dangerous circumstances. This article argues that British strategic military needs and colonial interests were the guiding force for meteorological policy within Malaya across this period, colouring the direction of tropical weather and climate research and expenditure on scientific resources. In so doing, it addresses the interplay of science, colonialism, and national interest in setting scientific agendas. It does so by focussing on a region and period that has seen little attention in the historiography of science, in particular meteorology.