Maureen Flavin's Barometer Delayed D-Day

Three days before D-Day, a 21-year-old Irish woman named Maureen Flavin took an hourly barometer reading while working overnight at the post office in Blacksod in Ireland. At 1:00 a.m., she reported the rapidly falling air pressure to Dublin, unaware that her reading would reach Allied headquarters and General Dwight D. Eisenhower's meteorologists. After officials asked the station to check and repeat the report, Flavin confirmed that a major Atlantic storm was approaching. The warning helped persuade Eisenhower to delay Operation Overlord by 24 hours, preventing the Allies from launching in dangerous conditions before a brief improvement allowed the invasion to proceed on June 6, 1944.

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