Meteorologica
Latin: Meteorologica or Meteora
Is a treatise by Aristotle, the text discusses what Aristotle believed to have been all the affections common to air and water, and the kinds and parts of the earth and the affections of its parts. It includes early accounts of water evaporation, earthquakes, and other weather phenomen. The key parameters of weather observations include temperature, moisture, pressure, and wind speed and direction at the Earth’s surface and vertically thru the atmosphere. Weather forecasting began with early civilizations using reoccurring astronomical and meteorological events to help them monitor seasonal changes in the weather
Various authors have credited the invention of the thermometer to Galileo Galilei, Cornelis Drebbel, Robert Fludd, or Santorio Santorio:
- 1714 – Gabriel Fahrenheit Germany first mercury thermometer with Fahrenheit scale
- 1743 – Andrus Celsius Sweden invented Celsius scale mercury thermometer
- 1782 – James Six England thermometer which can record the maximum and minimum temperatures
- 1848 – Lord William Thomson Kelvin Scotland measurement of hot and cold absolute extremes, absolute zero is – 273C
- 1400s – Leonardo da Vinci Italy first primitive hygrometer
- 1664 – Francesco Folli Italy first practical hygrometer
- 1783 – Horace Bénédict de Saussure Switzerland invented a hygrometer that uses human hair to measure humidity
- 1820 – John Frederic Daniell Britain first dew point hygrometer using electrical resistance
- 1644 – Evangelista Torricelli Italy invented an instrument called the Torricelli tube, a 4 ft long glass tube containing mercury inverted into a dish, used for experiments to create a vacuum. He suggested that it was the weight of air changing from day to day that caused variation in the height of the mercury. Using Torricelli’s design, his colleague Vincenzo Viviani made the first mercury barometer
- 1843 – Lucien Vidie France invented a metallic barometer that he called aneroid, from the Greek, meaning “without liquid.” The device consisted of a sealed metallic vacuum chamber which has flexible upper and lower surfaces connected to an index pointer. As barometric pressure changes, the height of the chamber fluctuates causing the pointer to move up or down. Aneroid barometers are compact and easily portable
the anemometer:
- 1450 – Leon Battista Alberti Italy described and illustrated a swinging-plate, deflection-type anemometer
- 1805 – Sir Francis Beaufort Britain created the Beaufort Scale used to visually estimate wind speed by observing the effect of wind on common objects
- 1846 – John Thomas Romney Robinson Ireland invented the first four-cup anemometer, predecessor to modern anemometers for wind measurement
hygrometer:
- 1400s – Leonardo da Vinci Italy first primitive hygrometer
- 1664 – Francesco Folli Italy first practical hygrometer.
- 1783 – Horace Bénédict de Saussure Switzerland invented a hygrometer that uses human hair to measure humidity
- 1820 – John Frederic Daniell Britain first dew point hygrometer using electrical resistance
Two new weather observing technologies—weather radar and weather satellites—were developed almost simultaneously during the 1950s. Both technologies were developed to directly support needed weather observations during military campaigns. Today, we refer to weather observations from radar and satellites as remote sensing:
- 1959 – First weather satellite is Vanguard 2
- 1960 – First successful weather satellite is TIROS-1 launched by NASA
www.metoffice.gov.uk, www.history.noaa.gov
hydrogen-filled balloons for radiosonde measurements. The theodolite in the image was used to track the balloon to the limit of visibility – www.history.noaa.gov
