Researched
Weather maps and services
Telegraph networks let observers draw weather maps and, from the 1850s, issue the first storm warnings and forecasts.
Open in the interactive tree →After a storm destroyed ships at Balaklava in 1854, Urbain Le Verrier showed it could have been tracked, and Robert FitzRoy began public forecasts in Britain in 1861. National weather services spread in the following decades. Forecasts still relied on experience and maps, not equations.
Prerequisites
- Earth measurement and maps~240 BC
- Barometer1643Pressure readings are the basis of weather observation and weather maps
- Electromagnetism1831-1865
- Electric Telegraph1844Telegraph lines delivered observations fast enough for weather maps
Unlocks
- Radiosonde1929-1930
- Numerical weather prediction1950
- International Geophysical Year1957-1958
- Weather Radar1957
- Earth observation by satellite1960