A few ideas for an exhibit on the history of weather forecasting, focusing on the notion of complexity in mechanical systems

1. THE CLOUD AND THE CLOCK
A History of Weather Forecasting
Cesare Pastorino, 21 January 2011

2. “All clouds are clocks – even
the most cloudy of clouds”
“All clocks are clouds – or in
other words, only clouds exist,
though clouds of very different
degrees of cloudiness”
Karl Popper

4. WEATHER GOES PUBLIC
In the storm of 25 October 1859, 343 ships wrecked on the British
coast, including the ocean steamer The Royal Charter. British
meteorologists made the news.

5. OBSERVERS AND INSTRUMENTS

6. HISTORY OF THE WEATHER MAPS
We are familiar with daily weather maps. How were they in the past?
(Including spoof charts)

7. ALL CLOCKS ARE CLOUDS
Playing with weather and dynamical systems. Computer games and
simulations exploring mechanical regularity and complexity, and
meteorological models (making the weather).

8. Images
Slides one and two: Rene Magritte, Untitled (Clock on Cloud), 1966.
Slide three (clockwise): Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier and his wife, Marie-
Anne Pierrette Paulze; Vilhelm Bjerknes; Edward Lorenz.
Slide four: The Times Thursday, October 27, 1859; pg. 9; Sailing bill of the
Royal Charter from the Maritime Archives and Library, Merseyside Maritime
Museum; The Times, Monday, June 30, 1862; pg. 11.
Slide five: Anemometer, 1875. Science Museum, London (1876-785); Admiral
Fitzroy's storm barometer, 1871-1880. Science Museum, London (1962-155).
Slide six: BBC Online weather map (January 20, 2011); weather chart, The
Times Tuesday, February 20, 1877; Punch, October 30, 1875, 182.
Slide seven: infrared images of storms over Queensland State, Australia
(December 2010-January 2011). NOAA Environmental Visualization
Laboratory.
Bibliography
Karl R. Popper, “Of Clouds and Clocks: An Approach to the Problem of
Rationality and the Freedom of Man,” in Objective Knowledge: An
Evolutionary Approach. Oxford 1972.
Katharine Anderson, Predicting the Weather. Victorians and the Science of
Meteorology. Chicago and London 2005.