How we measure the weather
Perhaps the most important weather instrument is the thermometer. Everybody is affected by temperature and we all want to know what the temperature is so we can properly plan our day.
The first thermometers were developed around the same time by inventors Santorio and Galileo in 1593. They were called thermoscopes. The one developed by Santorio included a numerical scale and Galileo’s was actually a rudimentary water thermometer. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the first mercury thermometer and designed the Fahrenheit temperature scale that today bears his name.
Anders Celsius from Sweden developed the Celsius scale in 1742. Some years ago, we tried to adopt the Celsius scale in this country, but it never took hold.
To measure the wind, we use an Anemometer; however, a lot of the time, we do not have access to this type of equipment, and in 1805, Sir Francis Beaufort developed the Beaufort scale for the British Royal Navy using simple visual signs to estimate the wind speed, such as smoke rising or tree branches moving.
For forecasting future weather, the simple home barometer is the most useful instrument. This instrument measures the pressure of our atmosphere. Rising pressure indicates descending air and fair weather. Falling pressure indicates rising air and formation of clouds and precipitation.
Modern day weather radar and satellite data allow for most of us to make some informed decisions and how the weather will impact our daily life.
With the number of weather disasters seemingly on the increase, a few more scales and measurements may be in order. For measuring hurricane intensity, the Saffir/Simpson scale was developed to measure the destructive power of a hurricane using a combination of wind and ocean-surge intensity. Forecasters assign a rating from 1-5 with 5 being the most destructive and dangerous. A major hurricane is one that is classified as category 3 or higher.
Tornadoes are measured using the Fujita scale named after Theodore Fujita who developed a method of classifying the damage caused by tornadoes based on aerial and ground assessment. The scale runs from F0 with minimal damage and winds from 40-72 mph to F5 with incredible damage and winds from 261-to 318 mph.
While Earthquakes are not really a weather event, they can cause large amounts of destruction and death and the Richter scale is used to measure the size of these events. The Richter scale records the magnitude of the earth’s movement. The scale is from 1-10. A recording of 7.0 for example means the disturbance is 10 times as large as a recording of 6.0.
Anything above a 6.0 is considered major. In 1964, an earthquake in Alaska measured 9.2 making it the most powerful earthquake in 20th century United States.