From cloudy to clear: FSU professor's new book explores the modern history of meteorology

Kristine Harper, an assistant professor of history at FSU. Click here for more information.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- For much of the first half of the 20th century, meteorology was more art than science, relying heavily on an individual forecaster's lifetime of local experience. Now, a Florida State University researcher has written a book that tells the story of the field's transformation from a "guessing science" into a sophisticated scientific discipline based on physics and mathematics.

"Weather by the Numbers: The Genesis of Modern Meteorology" was written by Kristine Harper, an assistant professor of history at FSU, and was just published by the MIT Press. In her book, Harper says that the greatest factor making the transformation of meteorology possible was the development of the electronic digital computer. Earlier attempts at numerical weather prediction had foundered on the human inability to solve nonlinear equations quickly enough for timely forecasting.

"Weather By The Numbers. " Click here for more information.

"A weather forecast is of little use if it is made several weeks after the weather has come and gone," Harper noted.

After World War II, the combination of an expanded observation network developed for military purposes, newly trained meteorologists savvy about math and physics, and the nascent digital computer all came together to create a new way of approaching atmospheric theory and weather forecasting, Harper writes.