The Quixotic Quest for the Perfect Weatherman

Don’t blame the weatherman for wrong forecasts. Blame chaos theory.
The Quixotic Quest for the Perfect Weatherman
A hydro-meteorological radar of weather forecast service Meteo-France in Vars, French Alps, on June 26, 2015. Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images
Jonathan Zhou
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Like so many things in the modern world, the origins of scientific weather forecasting lay in the Renaissance. In 1450, the German mathematician Nicholas of Cusa first wrote down a description of the hygrometer, a scale that measures the amount of moisture in the air. Thirty years later, Leonardo da Vinci built a rough prototype of the device.

Nearly 200 years later, the Italian Evangelista Torricelli invented the barometer, which measures atmospheric pressure. The 19th century saw a leap forward in weather prediction as telegraphs enabled meteorological observations to be relayed across continents in real time, and computers in the mid-20th century ushered in the large-scale number-crunching forecasting techniques that have come to dominate the profession.

The centuries-old craft is still being perfected today.

NASA’s Latest Efforts

NASA's DC-8 in the final stages of prep for its first flight in 2012. (NASA/Jeremy Harbeck)
NASA's DC-8 in the final stages of prep for its first flight in 2012. NASA/Jeremy Harbeck
Jonathan Zhou
Jonathan Zhou
Author
Jonathan Zhou is a tech reporter who has written about drones, artificial intelligence, and space exploration.
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