Storm

History of Atmospheric and space science

By Joshua Fulkerson
  • 600 BCE

    The first seasonal crop forecast

    The first seasonal crop forecast is made in Greece.
  • 400 BCE

    Greek philosopher.

    There is evidence that a Greek philosopher named Democritus predicted changes in the weather.
  • 350 BCE

    Aristotle writes a piece of work called "Meteorology."

    The piece of work talked about knowledge of earth sciences at that time.
  • 500

    Varahamihira publishes "Brihat - Samhita's."

    "Brihat - Samhita's." provided clear evidence that there was a deep knowledge of atmospheric studies in the Indian region.
  • 1000

    Weather forecasting is discussed.

    It was discovered that you can predict weather based on lunar phases.
  • 1088

    Chinese scientist writes vivid descriptions of weather.

    The scientist wrote vivid descriptions of tornadoes and that rainbows are caused by the shadow of the sun in rain.
  • 1121

    Muslim scientist writes first book on the hydrostatic balance.

  • 1267

    Roger Bacon was the first to calculate the angular size of the rainbow. He stated that the rainbow summit can not appear higher than 42 degrees above the horizon.

  • 1441

    First standardized rain gauge is created.

  • 1494

    During his second voyage Christopher Columbus experiences a tropical cyclone in the Atlantic Ocean, which leads to the first written European account of a hurricane.

  • Galileo constructs a thermoscope that measured temperature.

  • Evangelista Torricelli invents the mercury barometer.

  • Gabriel Fahrenheit creates reliable scale for measuring temperature with a mercury-type thermometer.

  • Anders Celsius, a Swedish astronomer, proposed the Celsius temperature scale which led to the current Celsius scale.

  • Benjamin Franklin is prevented from seeing a lunar eclipse by a hurricane.

  • Joseph Black discovers that ice absorbs heat without changing its temperature when melting.

  • Antoine Lavoisier discovers oxygen.

  • Sir John Leslie observes that a matte black surface radiates heat more effectively than a polished surface.

  • Hermann von Helmholtz publishes a definitive statement of the conservation of energy, the first law of thermodynamics.

  • William Ferrel publishes his essay on the winds and the currents of the oceans.

  • Robert FitzRoy uses the new telegraph system to gather daily observations from across England and produces the first synoptic charts. He also coined the term "weather forecast" and his were the first ever daily weather forecasts in this year.

  • Richard Assmann and Léon Teisserenc de Bort, two European scientists, independently discovered the stratosphere.

  • Lewis Fry Richardson organises the first numerical weather prediction experiment.

  • The U.S. Army Air Forces Weather Service was established.

  • Pulsed radar network is implemented in England during World War II. Generally during the war, operators started noticing echoes from weather elements such as rain and snow.

  • The first weather satellite, Vanguard 2, was launched on February 17. It was designed to measure cloud cover.

  • Weather radars are becoming more standardized and organized into networks. The number of scanned angles was increased to get a three-dimensional view of the precipitation, which allowed studies of thunderstorms. Experiments with the Doppler effect begin.

  • Computers first used in the United States to draw surface analyses.

  • NOAA hurricane experts issue first experimental Eastern Pacific Hurricane Outlook.

  • A record 27 named storms occur in the Atlantic. National Hurricane Center runs out of names from its standard list and uses Greek alphabet for the first time.

  • Weather radar improved by adding common precipitation to it such as freezing rain, rain and snow mixed, and snow for the first time.

  • The Fujita scale is replaced with the Enhanced Fujita Scale for National Weather Service tornado assessments.

  • Weather radar dramatically advances with more detailed options.