How was weather predicted in the past?
The forecasts weren’t as good as they are today! If you really want to know about this, you might read the book “Isaac’s Storm”, by Erik Larsen, about the hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas, in 1900. This remains the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. The book talks about how the U.S. Weather Bureau worked back then, in the days before satellites and computers. By the way, here’s one of the more famous old sayings that was used for weather forecasts: “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.” (You might search the web for “red sky at night” to find out whether this works.) Another method that’s been used for a very long time is to simply observe the wind and clouds; the cloud formations and changes in the wind have been used (by sailors, for example) probably for thousands of years. Even people who haven’t thought about it much have a pretty good idea of what kinds of clouds you get before a rainstorm. Here’s anot
