Weather Maps
By the late 1700s, reasonable
(sufficiently precise and repeatable)
weather instruments became available
More and more people took
observations….and some early
networks were started
Early Networks
• 1792 the Mannheim (or Palatine) network included 39 stations
from France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland and Russia.
• In the United States a formal observation program was
initiated in l816 under the auspices of the surgeon-general of
the army; army surgeons were required to take three
observations per day of pressure, temperature, state of sky and
winds.
• By 1853 nearly 100 army posts were providing such daily
reports.
• Other American networks were organized under the auspices
of the Navy and the Smithsonian Institution.
The First Weather Forecaster?
The problem: no way to rapidly
communicate weather
observations
• This changed around 1845 with the
invention of the telegraph
Real-Time Weather Maps
The Next Major Advance in
Surface Chart: Fronts
• The Norwegian Cyclone Model described
around 1920 initiated drawing of fronts