The Evolution of Meteorology

A Look into the Past, Present, and Future of Weather Forecasting

Kevin Anthony Teague, Nicole Gallicchio

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781119136163
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Meteorology & Climatology

The essential guide to the history, current trends, and the future of meteorology

This comprehensive review explores the evolution of the field of meteorology, from its infancy in 3000 bc, through the birth of fresh ideas and the naming of the field as a science, to the technology boom, to today. The Evolution of Meteorology reveals the full story of where meteorology was then to where it is now, where the field is heading, and what needs to be done to get the field to levels never before imagined. Authored by experts of the topic, this book includes information on forecasting technologies, organizations, governmental agencies, and world cooperative projects.

The authors explore the ancient history of the first attempts to understand and predict weather and examine the influence of the very early birth of television, computers, and technologies that are useful to meteorology. This modern-day examination of meteorology is filled with compelling research, statistics, future paths, ideas, and suggestions. This vital resource:

• Examines current information on climate change and recent extreme weather events
• Starts with the Ancient Babylonians and ends with the largest global agreement of any kind with the Paris Agreement
• Includes current information on the most authoritative research in the field of meteorology
• Contains data on climate change theories and understanding, as well as extreme weather statistics and histories

This enlightening text explores in full the history of the study of meteorology in order to bring awareness to the overall path and future prospects of meteorology.

Section III
Modern‐Day Technologies, Advancements, and Social Media Impacts (1980–2013)

6
Personal Technology Boom

Nicole Gallicchio

As television and computerized devices became more advanced, weather outlets became vast. Personal technological devices were developed, creating new opportunities to further the broadcasting of weather forecasts. The creation of the Internet sparked one of the biggest booms of media weather coverage and personal forecasting abilities. Weather forecasting had become accessible to the public, and first‐hand accounts were available to be viewed through advanced technological devices. Over the past 30 years accessibility to weather forecasting has become as simple as pressing a button.

6.1 Television Networks

The ability to broadcast weather forecasts and weather‐related news to the public in a mass communication form proved itself a very effective method. Weather networks around the world began to take form, and weather‐related news was regularly broadcast. The great success of weather‐informing television broadcasts in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan influenced other countries to join the boom of weather broadcasting. International news broadcasts included weather segments in their routine schedules, often with weather‐based or ‐themed lead stories and headlines concerning a weather phenomenon or an unfortunate disaster caused by extreme weather. This has become the same for local, regional, and all types of news agencies worldwide. Many news agencies often use the outlet of weather segments to increase ratings, especially since weather is a topic that everyone on earth can relate to, bringing uniformity to all cultures. Extreme weather has been a main topic for stories, debates, education, and political platforms from the 1980s to the present day. For popular news stations to stay relevant and retain viewers, they need their ratings to remain high, and weather news is a major contributor to this.

6.1.1 The Weather Channel

Launched on 2 May 1982, the Weather Channel became the first American weather‐broadcasting network. The channel broadcasts weather forecasts, weather‐related news, and documentaries. The Weather Channel originally gathered its national and regional forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its local forecasts were sourced from the various National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices around the country. Creating a national weather channel changed the way the American public viewed the weather as it was the first time weather‐related information could be viewed around the clock.

Over the years, the channel launched several different campaigns in order to keep the public interested and created new adaptations to the ever‐changing technology. The Weather Channel knew that advertising would determine success or failure as they needed to appeal to their audience. According to Frank Batten, the channel’s producers relied heavily on their gut instincts about consumers’ weather information needs and about how much weather‐based programming would appeal to them (Batten, 2002, pp. 49–50). There were major concerns that came along with sustaining a strictly weather forecast and news channel. Arguably, the biggest struggle the Weather Channel faced was whether viewers would sit through national weather forecasts to wait for their local forecasts. Local forecasts also created additional problems, with the technical side behind the comprehension of creating local forecasts across hundreds of local cable networks creating numerous challenges (Batten, 2002, p. 65). Another issue included the retrieval of all the data needed to have the local as well as national forecasts, with a common question being, “Where will all the data come from?” The main answer to that question was the National Weather Service (NWS) and its predecessor agencies. This did not come without its complications, however, because the channel still had to conform to specific rules that went with using the NWS data and warning systems. Originally, local data were retrieved this way, and national data were taken from the NOAA. WeatherStar (Weather Satellite Transponder Addressable Receiver) was created to generate local forecast segments on cable television systems (and eventually the Internet) nationwide. This program receives, generates, and inserts local weather forecasts and information, including advisories and warnings, into the Weather Channel’s national programming system. WeatherStar enables forecasts to be more accurate and localized to a specific area.

Over the years, the Weather Channel has created several campaigns and slogans for promoting its network, modernizing its on‐air presentations as technological advancements have presented themselves. In order to keep ratings up, adjustments were consistently made, along with adding programs that involved weather‐related documentaries. Appealing to the public and providing useful weather information are ways the Weather Channel has been able to exist since its launch in 1982, beating all the odds and naysayers against a 24/7 all‐weather television channel.

6.1.2 The BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the public‐service broadcaster of the United Kingdom, headquartered at Broadcasting House in London. As stated in Chapter 3, Section 3.7, the first BBC weather forecast was a shipping forecast, broadcast on the radio on behalf of the Met Office on 14 November 1922. As of 23 March 1923, the corporation launched daily weather forecasts, with the first ever televised weather broadcasts in 1936, and since then has become the world’s largest broadcasting center. The weather section of the BBC is so widespread that it can be viewed across the world.

Weather forecasts on BBC radio and television are recognized as the benchmark by which all other broadcasts in the United Kingdom and other countries around the world are judged. This traditional and renowned network has evolved rapidly with technology and has been at the forefront of weather distribution. The National BBC Weather Centre employs its meteorologists from the United Kingdom’s Met Office. The purpose for this is the belief that the person telling the weather story should have a full understanding of the physical processes of the atmosphere (Giles, 2010, pp. 134–137).

6.1.3 World Networks

Global media and communication is an international effort to promote weather outreaches. Numerous countries air weather information and news on both a local and global scale. Outside of the Weather Channel and the BBC, there are numerous other networks around the world focusing on weather events, forecasts, and phenomena.

The Weather Network, a Canadian English weather news and information specialty channel, is partnered with the Weather Channel. Licensed by the Canadian Radio‐Television and Telecommunications Commission on 1 December 1987, the Weather Network used computer‐generated local forecasts that aired on the video feed of a live broadcaster. In 1994, the service began using the same system owned by the Weather Channel, WeatherStar. The Weather Network has progressed with technology in the twenty‐first century, such as creating satellite services, Web and mobile services, HD broadcasts, and live programming.

Another world news network is Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is a satellite television network, owned by the House of Thani, the ruling family of Qatar. The network is among the largest news organizations in the world, broadcasting throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world, providing weather news and information to a large part of the eastern world, and more recently the western world with what was called Al Jazeera America.

With television access becoming a worldwide normality, and with weather being one of the few things in life that affects everyone, albeit differently, broadcasting weather has become a priority and necessity. It is no longer just a simple, small, and forgotten segment on a localized one‐hour news piece. Instead, weather broadcasting has gone straight to the forefront of all the major news outlets, local, regional, and internationally all across the world, further emphasizing the need to spread as much weather knowledge and information as possible to keep the world up to date and prepared.

6.2 Personal Computers

A personal computer (PC) is a digital computer designated for one person to use at a time. Computers that were small and inexpensive enough to be purchased and used in an individual’s home became feasible during the late 1970s. The first personal computers manufactured on a grand scale were Apple Computer, Inc.’s (now Apple Inc.) Apple II, the Tandy Radio Shack TRS‐80, and the Commodore Business Machines Personal Electronic Transactor (PET) (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015). These computers were mainly used in secondary education schools and small businesses, having very little memory and were extremely slow. IBM Corporation came out with a riva...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Authors
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section I: Building Blocks of Meteorology (3000 BC–AD 1950)
• Section II: The Early Television, Computer, Satellite, and Radar Era (1950–1980)
• Section III: Modern‐Day Technologies, Advancements, and Social Media Impacts (1980–2013)
• Section IV: Current and Future Ideologies of Climate Change and Meteorological Processes
• Section V: The Future Direction of Meteorology
• Appendix Figures A–H
• Index
• End User License Agreement