Weather Journalism

Origins

The electric telegraph allowed reports of weather conditions across a wide area to be received almost simultaneously. As scientists came to understand the complex interactions among atmosphere, land, and water, this allowed forecasts to be made given conditions nearby and elsewhere. British hydrographer Francis Beaufort and his protégé Robert Fitzroy are the two most credited with the birth of weather forecasting as a science. Beaufort's development of his Wind Force Scale and “Weather Notation” coding, along with his production of reliable tide tables for the British Isles, which motivated similar efforts elsewhere in Europe and North America, laid the foundation for documenting weather conditions. Continuing Beaufort's work, Fitzroy invented the “storm glass” (barometer) in 1854. A costly storm in 1859 inspired Fitzroy to develop weather charts based on barometric and wind force readings sent to him by naval stations using telegraph lines. These readings allowed predictions of bad weather to be made in advance, which he termed forecasting. The “Weather Book,” which he published in 1863 setting forth his methods, was critical in establishing meteorology as an acceptable field of scientific study. Both Beaufort and Fitzroy were influential in British governmental circles and, though ridiculed at times, their work eventually gained public credibility, was accepted by the Royal Navy for navigation purposes, and formed the basis for modern meteorology.

In 1849, Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, organized the first network of meteorological observers in the United States who reported to him daily by telegraph. Their reports included temperature readings, wind directions and velocities, and precipitation measurements. By the late 1850s Henry was displaying daily weather maps of the observations for the public. In 1860, the Dutch chemist C. H. D. Buys Ballot, who developed theories of air currents and the behavior of large weather systems, began issuing the world's first storm warnings in Holland, based on telegrams from observers at six places in that country. At the same time, Robert Fitzroy was collecting weather data from a network of English and continental stations and using the information to construct “synoptic” weather charts, with tentative forecasts of coming weather fronts. In August 1861, British newspapers began occasionally carrying Fitzroy's weather forecasts, which were based on his daily weather charts.

Although New England printer Ebenezer Merriam, who originated a theory of cycles of atmospheric phenomena, had occasionally offered weather forecasts in New York newspapers as early as 1853, it was not until the consolidation of telegraphic service by Western Union in 1866 that an organization was in place to supply extensive weather data. The Associated Press had an early weather-reporting network, but there is no evidence that there was any consideration given to supplementing its brief reports of temperature and precipitation with forecasts. Instead, a few papers carried reports of the previous day's local weather.

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