Through the vast amounts of technology in today’s age, meteorologists can predict cold front weeks ahead. Snow storms, frosted mornings, and the timing of the colder season can be measured in minutes to a few hours. But how was colder weather calculated in ancient China or Greece? How did the ancient world know which crops to plant and when to add more insulation to their houses?
In 600 B.C., the Babylonians studied the different types of clouds that depended on day-to-day weather, whereas a Chinese astronomer created a calendar based on festivals associated with weather around 300 B.C.
Aristotle wrote a report on his theories on the creation and formation of weather, and although many of them were fallacies, they were highly believed until the 17th century.
With the new age of the Renaissance, more philosophers and scientists were obsessed with the components of weather and how to predict it. An instrument with the ability to measure the air’s humidity, the hygrometer, was invented by Galileo in 1592.
This step in the research of weather continued throughout the mid-19th century with the invention of the telegraph data from weather observations. Soon in the 1920’s, the radiosonde was invented which heavily impacted our knowledge of temperature, moisture, and air pressure.
Since then, humans have continued to get more advanced in the understanding of how weather works and arrives at certain times. Not only does it help farmers know when to plant crops, but also when to insulate homes, and when to turn on the heat. Temperature will forever be an interesting and highly researched topic.
