90% Chance of Celebration

Happy National Weatherperson’s Day! We know what you’re thinking, “another trivial appreciation day.” Not so fast…

In this age of information consumption, we often take forecasts and the people behind them for granted. Today we celebrate individuals in the fields of meteorology, weather forecasting and broadcast meteorology who we depend on daily whether it be grabbing an umbrella on your way to work, keeping us safe during times of severe weather or simply knowing when to plan that “perfect weather” day.

Meteorologists Dr. Greg Postel and Reynolds Wolf in The Lab at The Weather Channel.

A brief history lesson

We celebrate National Weatherperson’s Day on February 5 to commemorate the birth of John Jeffries, one of America’s first observers of weather. The Harvard grad took daily weather measurements from 1774 until 1816, and he was part of London’s first balloon flight in 1784 to gather scientific data of the air at varying altitudes.

John Jeffries (image source, Wikipedia)

Meteorology has a deep history that goes beyond Jeffries’ contributions. Here are a just few milestones:

• 340 B.C.: Aristotle, considered the founder of meteorology, published Meteorologica, which detailed all meteorological findings to date.
• Early 1600s: Galileo, Descartes and many others began using instrumental observations. Barometers, hygrometers and thermometers were invented and widely used during this time.
• Mid-1800s: Surprisingly the telegraph was largely responsible for the advancement of meteorology. Thanks to the invention, weather data and observations from distant points could then be collected, plotted and analyzed at one location.
• 1861: The London Time printed the first daily weather forecast.
• October 1, 1890: The national weather service (NWS) is first identified as a civilian agency when Congress, at the request of President Benjamin Harrison, passes an act transferring the meteorological responsibilities of the Signal Service to the newly-created U.S. Weather Bureau in the Department of Agriculture.
• 1925: The first public radio forecast happened in Boston.
• January 11, 1954: From BBC studios, George Cowling became the first person to present the weather forecast in front of a weather map on television.
• April 1, 1960: The first orbiting satellite (TIROS 1) was launched. It lasted only 78 days but gave the first accurate weather forecasts based on data collected from space.
• May 2, 1982: The Weather Channel is the first 24-hour network devoted to weather programming and the first national TV network able to automatically customize content based on viewer location. (We had to!)

Final Thoughts

Weather touches nearly every aspect of our lives. Take some time today to thank the people behind the forecast - after all trying to predict Mother Nature’s next move isn’t always easy.