Simpson, George Clark (1878-1965)

English meteorologist who studied atmospheric electricity, ionization and radioactivity in the atmosphere, and the effect of radiation on the polar ice. KCB 1935.

Simpson was born in Derby and studied at Owens College (later Manchester University). In 1905 he became the first lecturer in meteorology at a British university (Manchester), and began working at the Meteorological Office; he was its director 1920-38. With the outbreak of World War II, he returned from retirement to take charge of Kew Observatory, continuing research into the electrical structure of thunderstorms until 1947.

Simpson travelled widely. In 1902 he visited Lapland to investigate atmospheric electricity. He spent a period inspecting meteorological stations throughout India and Burma; travelled to the Antarctic in 1910 on Captain Scott's last expedition; and visited Mesopotamia during World War I as a meteorological adviser to the British Expeditionary Force. Later he was a member of the Egyptian government's Nile Project Commission.

Simpson's revised form of the Beaufort scale of wind speed was in international use 1926-39.

Simpson concluded that excessive solar radiation would increase the amount of cloud and that the resultant increase in precipitation would lead to enlargement of the polar ice caps, which might explain the ice ages.