William Clement Ley (6 July 1840 - 22 April 1896) was an English

clergyman Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and pioneer

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

who studied

clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may com ...

and examined their dynamics and use in

weather forecasting Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology forecasting, to predict the conditions of the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia a ...

Life

Ley was born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

to William Henry Ley who was a headmaster at

Hereford Cathedral School Hereford Cathedral School is an independent, co-educational day and boarding school for pupils of ages 3 to 18 years, from Nursery to Sixth Form. Its headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school's premi ...

. He studied classics at

Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the st ...

in Oxford and graduated with a BA First Class in 1862 and an MA in 1864. He took an interest in meteorology and became Vice President of the University Meteorological Society. Ley was ordained in 1863 serving in Herefordshire before becoming rector of

Ashby Parva Ashby Parva is a village and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The parish had a population of 211 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 233 at the 2011 census. The village is in the west of the district, ...

, Leicestershire in 1874. In 1873 he was elected a Fellow of the Meterorological Society and published a number of researches in the ''Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society''. Ley's major contribution was his book on the clouds titled '' Cloudland: A study on the structure and characters of clouds'' (1894). He examined how cloud formations were related to the weather and examined the value of cloud observation in forecasting weather. He was possibly the first to examine upper air circulations and their relation to air flow in lower altitudes. He studied cirrus drifts and examined what are now termed as

jet streams Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering thermal wind, air currents in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are west ...

. He married Elizabeth in 1866 and they had eight children. He resigned from his clerical position in 1892 and died in 1896, two years after the death of his wife. His work was largely ignored until his ideas were rediscovered 40 years later. File:Ley_chart_II.jpg, Chart of winds in Europe, 1872 File:Ley chart IV.jpg, Chart of winds in Europe, 1872

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ley, William Clement English meteorologists 1840 births 1896 deaths