Overview

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.

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9780750932158

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This morning's weather forecast may or may not have contained a vestige of accuracy; time will tell. A storm appearing with no warning devastated the fleets at the Crimea and led to demands for science to turn its collective mind to forecasting the weather. This book positions Admiral Robert Fitzroy, best known as the captain of The Beagle - in turn known for Charles Darwin's voyage on it, as effectually the inventor of the weather forecast and certainly as the founding father of the Meteorological Office. Going back to the Greeks and the Romans and concentrating primarily on the formative days of forecasts in the mid/late eighteen hundreds this is science, exploration and maritime history combined in a fascinating mix. Published at the 150th anniversary of the founding of the British Meteorological Office and the 50th year of live weather forecasts on BBC television, it is more than Fair . (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

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.

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