Das Wetter der Nation.  Meteorologie, Klimatologie und der schweizerische Bundesstaat, 1860–1914

Hupfer, Franziska

doi:10.33057/chronos.1502

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…In fact, because of their lack of practical commitments, the eventual triumph of the Physicists—if the establishment of the Prussian Meteorological Institute in 1847 is to be counted as such—is surprising. Apparently, the patronage of Alexander von Humboldt (see Körber, 1997) and a more general interest in recording data for the purposes of nation‐building, as witnessed in other countries (see Coen, 2018; Hupfer, 2019), outweighed practical concerns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only if observations could be spread out, synchronized and transmitted quickly, might meteorologists begin to even consider thinking about forecasting (Mahlmann, 1850b). Although synoptic forecasting methods often proved highly controversial (e.g., Anderson, 2005; Hupfer, 2019), the reticence of these German authors seems extreme. Kämtz (1840, p. vii) insisted that a meteorologist was “nothing but a historian of the weather” whose only task was to “seek the laws of past events”.…”

Section: Causalities Of the Weather In German Countries 1750–1850mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forms of meteorological knowledge 1750–1850 in German countries and beyond

Richter

2020

WIREs Climate Change

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The complexity of atmospherical processes has always yielded a multitude of ways of knowing about the weather. What has been lacking in the historiography of meteorology so far is a way to formulate differences between forms of knowledge in a way that does not privilege modern scientific structures, but focuses instead on the epistemological category of causality. Using causality as ground of comparison for different knowledge claims, I shall argue, may enable researchers to investigate meteorological knowledge across time periods, perhaps even geographical regions, in a more symmetrical manner. This review demonstrates this approach as a means to organize a large set of historical meteorological writings from German countries between 1750 and 1850. Three distinct forms of knowledge (Semiotics, Physics, and Organics of the weather) during that time and in that region are suggested and will be described. While a bibliography with a national perspective from the 1880s was the basis for the selection of historical sources, such a setup proved awkward even to contemporaries. In addition, the bibliography came with a number of biases and shortcomings that will be critically reviewed. This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Major Historical Eras

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Causalities Of the Weather In German Countries 1750–1850mentioning

confidence: 99%

Forms of meteorological knowledge 1750–1850 in German countries and beyond

Richter

2020

WIREs Climate Change

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“…In 1860 he hired the guardian of the cathedral's bell tower, Johann Reinhard, to continue the measurements on behalf of the NGB. The station was now part of a public network financed by the canton of Bern (Hupfer, 2017), similar in scope to the network created a century earlier by the ÖGB. In the meantime, the astronomical observatory was refitted to host self-registering instruments that would serve the upcoming NWS.…”

Section: Studer (1779-1827)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre-industrial temperature variability on the Swiss Plateau derived from the instrumental daily series of Bern and Zurich

et al. 2022

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Abstract. We describe the compilation of two early instrumental daily temperature series from Bern and Zurich, Switzerland, starting from 1760 and 1756, respectively. The series are a combination of numerous small segments from different observers at different locations within and outside the two cities that are converted to modern units and homogenized. In addition, we introduce a methodology to estimate the errors affecting daily and monthly mean values derived from early instrumental observations. Given the frequent small data gaps, we merge the two daily series into a more complete series representing the central Swiss Plateau. We finally compare the homogenized monthly series with other temperature reconstructions for Switzerland. We find significant differences before 1860, pointing to biases that might affect some of the most widely used instrumental data sets. In general, the homogenization of temperature measurements at the transition between the early instrumental and national weather service eras remains a problematic issue in historical climatology and has significant implications for other fields of climate research.

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“…Learned societies were founded in the main towns, where their members could present and discuss the latest scientific discoveries. Many of these societies had their own meteorological observatory or even set up a regional network of stations (Pfister, 1975;Hupfer, 2015Hupfer, , 2017Pfister et al, 2019). However, very few records from the time before the creation of a NWS in 1863 have been used in modern climate research (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early instrumental meteorological observations in Switzerland: 1708–1873

Brugnara

Pfister

Villiger

et al. 2020

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. We describe a dataset of recently digitised meteorological observations from 40 locations in today's Switzerland, covering the 18th and 19th centuries. Three fundamental variables – temperature, pressure, and precipitation – are provided in a standard format after they have been converted into modern units and quality-controlled. The raw data produced by the digitisation, often including additional variables and annotations, are also provided. Digitisation was performed by manually typing the data from photographs of the original sources, which were in most cases handwritten weather diaries. These observations will be important for studying past climate variability in Central Europe and in the Alps, although the general scarcity of metadata (e.g. detailed information on the instruments and their exposure) implies that some caution is required when using them. The data described in this paper can be found at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.909141 (Brugnara, 2020).

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Das Wetter der Nation. Meteorologie, Klimatologie und der schweizerische Bundesstaat, 1860–1914

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Forms of meteorological knowledge 1750–1850 in German countries and beyond

Forms of meteorological knowledge 1750–1850 in German countries and beyond

Pre-industrial temperature variability on the Swiss Plateau derived from the instrumental daily series of Bern and Zurich

Early instrumental meteorological observations in Switzerland: 1708–1873

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