Culture
Film "Pressure" Dramatizes the D-Day Weather Forecast That Guided Eisenhower
September 9, 2026 at 06:56 AM
The film stars Andrew Scott as meteorologist James Stagg, whose forecast to General Eisenhower shaped the timing of the 1944 Normandy landings.
- The film, starring Andrew Scott as Group Captain James Stagg and Brendan Fraser as General Eisenhower, opens in UK and Irish cinemas on 9 September.
- Met Office archivist Catherine Ross said film-makers used exact replicas of June 1944 records, including every weather chart produced at the time and observation codes.
- Ross said allied forecasters accessed German weather observations because Bletchley Park had broken the Enigma code.
- University of Reading adviser Stephen Burt said forecasting beyond 24 hours in the 1940s relied on limited surface measurements and a few ship, submarine, and aircraft observations.