Heaven's Breath Quotes

“Living, as we do, at the bottom of an ocean of air, it is easy not to look up. To see only our immediate environment in two-dimensional terms. It is probably no accident that the first ones to question this view, to see something others missed, were a father and son who watched the weather go by from mountain peaks near the top of the world. Vilhelm and Jacob Bjerknes were Norwegian meteorologists who, during the First World War, organised a network of weather stations across their country. By releasing instrumented balloons and comparing observations, they became aware that the air was not homogenous, that it moved across the face of Earth in deep waves. They identified distinct chunks of air, independent volumes with definite properties. And, with the War still much on their minds, it seemed natural to them to describe the turbulent boundaries between these moving masses as ‘fronts’. The discovery that local air did not suddenly become cool or warm, moist or dry, but was completely replaced by a new and different volume, was vital. It gave rise to modern meteorology.”
― Lyall Watson, Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind