History

Since the late 1800s, we have collected data from the atmosphere, lakes, seas and land. Here are some milestones in the evolution towards today's SMHI, an agency with expertise in meteorology, hydrology, oceanography and climatology.

1873 The Meteorological Central Institute (Statens Meteorologiska Centralanstalt, MCA) is founded and reports to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

1874 On 1 July the first Swedish weather bulletin is published.

1880 The first daily weather forecast is issued on 15 July.

1908 The Hydrographic Bureau (Hydrografiska byrån, HB) is established. The agency's task was to map the Swedish fresh waters, both scientifically and practically.  HB collaborated with the MCA on some meteorological observations such as precipitation and snow cover.

1919 HB and MCA are merged to form the Meteorological and Hydrographic Office (Statens Meteorologisk-Hydrografiska Anstalt, SMHA).

1924 The first weather report was read out on Stockholm broadcast radio (19 February)

Väderrapport uppläses i radio 1924
Foto SMHI

1945 On 1 July, SMHA is transmogrified into the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI).

1975 SMHI's headquarters move to Norrköping.

SMHIs kontor i Norrköping
SMHI's head office in Norrköping.

1978 The installation of automatic stations for oceanic measurements commenced.

1985 The Hydrographic Laboratory changes name to the Oceanographic Laboratory, as well as authority from the National Board of Fisheries (Fiskeristyrelsen) to SHMI.

1997 The climate research programme SWECLIM is initiated. The hub within Swedish climate research is established at SMHI's Rossby Centre. The programme was discontinued in 2003, but Rossby Centre lives on and is expanding.

2012 The Swedish National Knowledge Centre for Climate Change Adaptation is established at SMHI. The Centre gathers, compiles and shares knowledge on climate change adaptation and is run in broad collaboration with stakeholders in the field of climate change adaptation.