The extraordinary weather story behind the final decision to launch the D-Day landings has reached cinemas in the new film Pressure.
Starring Andrew Scott as Group Captain James Stagg and Brendan Fraser as General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the film follows the tense period immediately before D-Day, when Allied commanders faced one of the most consequential decisions of the Second World War.
With thousands of troops, ships and aircraft awaiting orders, the success of Operation Overlord depended heavily on the weather. Stagg and his forecasting team had to determine whether conditions would allow the invasion to proceed or whether it should be postponed.
An important part of that forecasting story began at Blacksod in County Mayo.
In June 1944, 21-year-old Maureen Flavin was working at Blacksod Post Office, where regular weather observations were recorded and transmitted. Maureen and lighthouse keeper Ted Sweeney checked the readings as atmospheric pressure fell and Atlantic conditions de