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There have been many historical writings on weather.
Hesiod, a Greek poet around 800 BC advised sailors it was safe to go to
sea, when the first leaves of the fig tree were the size of a crow’s
footprint. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) wrote 150 philosophical treatises
including one called Meteorology. Based on his observations he
tried to describe and explain weather such as rain, cloud, mist, dew,
snow, hail, wind, thunder, lightning, hurricanes, haloes, and rainbows.
Theophrastus (372-287 BC) a Greek philosopher, compiled a book on
weather signs that would help farmers and sailors predict the weather.
Meteorology or the science of weather was
mainly based on observation. Many weather instruments were not invented
until the start of the 1600's. Even the thermometer was not
invented until 1714 when Gabriel Fahrenheit of Poland used the freezing
of salt water as "zero" degrees. Fresh water would freeze at
32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. In 1742 Anders Celsius, a Swedish
astronomer devised a metric system, by using the freezing of water as
zero degrees and boiling at 100 degrees.
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