# The Birth of the Weather Forecast



## SeaBreeze (May 1, 2015)

Beginnings of the weather forecasts.  http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32483678




> There was no such thing as a weather forecast in 1854 when FitzRoy established what would later be called the Met Office. Instead the Meteorological Department of the Board of Trade was founded as a chart depot, intended to reduce sailing times with better wind charts.
> 
> With no forecasts, fishermen, farmers and others who worked in the open had to rely on weather wisdom - the appearance of clouds or the behaviour of animals - to tell them what was coming. This was an odd scenario - that a bull in a farmer's field, a frog in a jar or a swallow in a hedge-row could detect a coming storm before a man of science in his laboratory was an affront to Victorian notions of rational progress.


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## oldman (May 2, 2015)

Knowing the weather is a priority for pilots.


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