The Weather Was Bad, Very Bad
Group Captain Stagg was the chief meteorological adviser to Operation Neptune, and he came to report that his three teams of meteorologists, who had been deliberating and arguing by telephone, had reluctantly reached an agreement. The news was that the weather for June 5th would be bad, very bad. The winds in the channel were going to be force five on the Beaufort Scale.
Winston Churchill, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Sir Alan Brooke at an unidentified location, 1944. Photo by Granger / Shutterstock
It meant a stiff breeze, enough to set up a wave that would mean trouble for ordinary ships, let alone the landing craft. Even worse, the sky was going to be overcast, and the cloud bases were going to be at a mere 500 feet. That meant that the launching of paratroopers would be impossible, and so any precision bombing of the defenses was out of the question.