The formation of the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade in 1854 helped to cement meteorology's usefulness to the British nation and particularly to shipping. Later it invested in land-based observatories, which were meant to contribute to the development in weather forecasting for those living and working on land. However, arguments for the value of meteorological science to various publics - indeed, the very invention of meteorology's publics - began much earlier than the mid-nineteenth century. This paper considers the justifications that were made for the study of the weather at sea and on land in the first half of the nineteenth century, and the attempts that were made to put these in place. In doing so it follows the establishment of routines for weather observation on board military and commercial ships as well as plans to observe the weather at colonial observatories. The paper then considers the publics that these meteorological schemes were meant to assist. These were divided into numerous groups, some of which were geographical bounded. In turn the paper attempts to consider where and how meteorology was engaged with by its users – in short, the paper asks who meteorology’s publics actually were and where they were to be found.