Weather by the Numbers: The Genesis of Modern Meteorology

Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology

by Kristine C. Harper

The history of the growth and professionalization of American meteorology and its transformation into a physics- and mathematics-based scientific discipline. For much of the first half of the twentieth century, meteorology was more art than science, dependent on an individual forecaster's lifetime of local experience. In Weather by the Numbers, Kristine Harper tells the story of the transformation of meteorology from a "guessing science" into a sophisticated scientific discipline based on physics and mathematics. What made this possible was the development of the electronic digital computer; earlier attempts at numerical weather prediction had foundered on the human inability to solve nonlinear equations quickly enough for timely forecasting. After World War II, the combination of an expanded observation network developed for military purposes, newly trained meteorologists, savvy about math and physics, and the nascent digital computer created a new way of approaching atmospheric theory and weather forecasting.

This transformation of a discipline, Harper writes, was the most important intellectual achievement of twentieth-century meteorology, and paved the way for the growth of computer-assisted modeling in all the sciences.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction, History Of Science

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Ken Beissner · Rating 5 out of 5]

never realized how modern the history of modern meteorology was. Makes me realize how recent the science of climate modeling is.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very accessible history of a pivotal point in the history of 20th century meteorology - the first computer assisted numerical forecast - that argues for the importance of both theory and practice.