The UK has just experienced the ‘hottest October since records began’ but who recorded the first weather event and when was the first weather forecast reported? And was this really the hottest ever?
The early Chinese, Persians and Egyptians already observed the weather and tried to draw conclusions, but of course professional weather records started much later.
In the US state leaders were amongst the first who were very interested in weather. Benjamin Franklin recorded the movement of a hurricane for the first time in 1743, while Thomas Jefferson even had a thermometer as well as a barometer and made regular observations between 1772 and 1778, [1] mainly about temperatures.
Although there were many tools available for such recordings the telegraph eventually helped in collecting data from vast distances. In 1849 the first observation network was set up between telegraph companies and by the end of that year about 150 volunteers reported the data. By 1860, 500 stations operated all across the country.
In the UK one of the most famous early meteorologists was Dr John Rutty who recorded weather data for forty years in Dublin, which he eventually published in his book in 1770. [2]
Also, from 1659 and 1766 various non-official records were kept, called the Central England Temperature and the England and Wales Precipitation series, respectively.
The Met Office
In the UK the Met Office was founded in 1854 as an experimental government department, with the objective to forecast weather, primarily for sailors. [3] Its leader was a naval captain, Robert FitzRoy, who developed the first storm warning service, and created the foundation of several forecasting methods, including charts.
In 1861 The Times published the first weather forecast in a few short sentences covering only the next two days, also written by Robert FitzRoy. [4]
US National Weather Service
The US National Weather Service was founded as the Weather Bureau in 1870, with the aim to provide meteorological observations at military stations, as well as to forecast storms. [5] In those days however the primary forecast assumption was that a weather pattern in one location will move on to the next [6], while by 1902 notes on weather expectations were already sent to ships at sea wirelessly. The first weekly forecasts were started in 1910.
Today
The UK Met Office today considers 1914 as the beginning of official records, as they say, because reliable methods were only available from this time on.
This however means that the hottest, the wettest or the driest days may not actually be those – as said – ‘since records began’.
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[1] http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/timeline.php
[2] http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History/article/when-did-weather-records-begin/
[3] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/in-depth/overview
[4] http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2011/150-years
[5] http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/index.php
[6] http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pa/history/140anniversary.php
