Storm Warning: The History of the Weather Forecast

£14.95

Temporarily Unavailable
Storm Warning: The History of the Weather Forecast Author: Format: Hardback First Published: Published By: The History Press Ltd
string(3) "286"
Pages: 286 Illustrations and other contents: 16 illustrations Language: English ISBN: 9780750932158 Categories: , ,

Imagine a world without the weather forecast. Is it likely to be warm and sunny for the fete at the weekend? Will Thursday be a good day to make that ferry crossing, or would Friday be better? We might scorn it and deride it, but we still consult the men – and women – from the Met Office, rather than a piece of soggy seaweed, before deciding whether to set out with a brolly in the morning. More than one hundred and fifty years the best forecast available was the weather glass with its imprecise predictions of ‘Fair’ or ‘Changeable’. Before that, man consulted the animals in the fields, the birds in the sky, clouds, insects, the moon – even astrologers, oracles and the ancient gods. The tale of the emergence of forecasting from mythology, through the weather glass and into meteorology is a story fraught with conflict between scientists and seers; it involves the riding of storms; the scouring of the wide oceans in small sailing ships and soaring to the sky in balloons. This book traces the story of man’s attempts to foretell the coming weather, and shows how weather prediction emerged from the realms of the seer and charlatan into credible acceptability.

Weight0.434484 kg
Author

Editor
Photographer
Format

Illustrators
Publisher

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.

Author Biography

Pauline Halford is a regular columnist and feature writer for 'Caravan' magazine, and is a part-time computer systems administrator for the NHS. She has had a number of articles published in 'Family Tree', 'Record Buyer' and other magazines, and has co-authored the autobiography of the singer Frank Ifield.