The Weathermen

The Weathermen is a layperson's guide to the overall historical framework within which these advances were made. It covers 2,000 years exploring the many strands that tell the story of weather history – recording instruments, the drawing up of charts, wind circulation, weather diaries, the jet stream and so on. It is the lives of over 100 men, whose biographies provide the signposts along the way. These were essentially men of their times, be that of The Enlightenment, the Crimean War, the days of the British Empire or of two World Wars. As that great scientist Charles Lyell suggested, "It is only by knowing the past that we can know the present, and it is only be knowing the present that we can know the future."