1st Edition

Politics, Statistics and Weather Forecasting, 1840-1910 Taming the Weather

By Aitor Anduaga Copyright 2020
    430 Pages
    by Routledge

    430 Pages
    by Routledge

    Weather forecasting is the most visible branch of meteorology and has its modern roots in the nineteenth century when scientists redefined meteorology in the way weather forecasts were made, developing maps of isobars, or lines of equal atmospheric pressure, as the main forecasting tool. This book is the history of how weather forecasting was moulded and modelled by the processes of nation-state building and statistics in the Western world.

    List of figures



    List of tables





    Acknowledgements





    List of abbreviations





    Introduction



    CHAPTER 1 - Pre-1850 conceptualizations of storms



    CHAPTER 2 - Meteorology and statistics before 1854



    CHAPTER 3 - The adoption of an Eulerian approach by state interests



    CHAPTER 4 - The Lagrangian approach as a counterweight



    CHAPTER 5 - The convergence between statistics and synoptic method



    CHAPTER 6 - The hegemony of the Eulerian approach and the beginning of its end



    CHAPTER 7 - Behind weather forecasting: national interests and the primacy of public service over research



    CHAPTER 8 - Meteorological cartography

    Biography

    Aitor Anduaga is an Ikerbasque Research Professor (Ikerbasque: Basque Foundation for Science) at the Basque Museum of the History of Medicine and Science, University of the Basque Country.