How was weather predicted in the past?

Question

I need to do a report on comparing and contrasting how weather is predicted now to how weather was predicted then. Can you help me? Thanks.

Answer 1

The forecasts weren't as good as they are today! If you really want to know about this, you might read the book "Isaac's Storm", by Erik Larsen, about the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900. This remains the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. The book talks about how the U.S. Weather Bureau worked back then, in the days before satellites and computers.

By the way, here's one of the more famous old sayings that was used for weather forecasts: "Red sky at night, sailors' delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning." (You might search the web for "red sky at night" to find out whether this works.)

Another method that's been used for a very long time is to simply observe the wind and clouds; the cloud formations and changes in the wind have been used (by sailors, for example) probably for thousands of years. Even people who haven't thought about it much have a pretty good idea of what kinds of clouds you get before a rainstorm.

Here's another simple weather-forecasting method: Barometers have been around for a few hundred years. You put one in your house or ship, and watch its behavior over time. The barometer shows air pressure. Falling pressure tends to indicate bad weather coming, and rising pressure tends to indicate good weather.

In short, old-timers had a bunch of ways of making short-term forecasts; what they couldn't do well is make long-term forecasts.

Answer 2

Today we have the advantage of computers, satellites, and the internet to help us communicate data to each other and make forecasts.

Back before all of that technology, weather was forecast any way that someone could do it. It could be as crude as saying "If the cows start running or stop eating, a storm is coming". Those methods were surprisingly accurate. It was as simple as noticing a pattern over the years. If one thing happened, it usually meant something else was going to happen soon.

Answer 3

Old saying(or belief) + personal experience + imagination.