Every night across the country, viewers tune in to their evening news to glimpse the next day`s weather. They are treated to graphic images of invading air masses, colliding fronts, & growing tropical storms. This book is the story of this tool, the weather map, which in its many forms has made the atmosphere visible, understandable, & at least moderately predictable. No other maps are so spontaneously timely, so widely & frequently consulted, & so central to the daily activities of so many. The singular history of the weather map developed around the twin poles of weather`s many facets & the public`s varied needs. Mark Monmonier traces the contentious debates among scientists eager to unravel the enigma of storms & global change, explains the strategies for mapping the upper atmosphere & forecasting disaster, & exposes the efforts to detect & control air pollution. He introduces Karl Theodor, a Bavarian politician who devised one of the first weather-tracking networks in the late-18th century, & Heinrich Wilhelm Brandes, who drew the first maps of European weather in 1819
- for the year of 1783. Monmonier also explores the interaction between technology
- from the telegraph to the Internet
- & weather forecasting.