George Grant Bond
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Conclusion
Register of Marks
Bibliography
References
Index
Search
Help
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There were always the people who could have done it better. The Daily Mail published a humorous letter from a correspondent in 1925: 'It is easy to be a prophet after the event, and I find now, that all my acquaintances even a week ago could have "told you so" about the rain. But their methods, scientific and otherwise, differ remarkably. Grandpa certainly predicted the downpour. He said he could tell by the way his corns felt, poor old dear. My next door neighbour who always knows everything , said "We had several days of cold westerlies, and then the wind suddenly swung round to the nor'west, so what could you expect? That always means rain in Brisbane." Old Mr Brown, my neighbour on the other side, also knew beforehand. "When I see that big yeller ring around the moon a week back," he said, "close in one night, and standin' off the next, I knew well we was in for it." Then old Mrs Jones who comes to take the scraps for her fowls, said, "Terrible weather Mum. I told Jones we'd be getting it. I dreamt three nights in a row of houses afire, and you know that always means bad weather. Mum." Then I looked up the Daily Mail, and I saw that according to J. Cumming Ogg, it was "due to an exceptional preponderence of anti-cyclone influences." '[22]
The unpredictability of the weather has always been a great disadvantage to everyone, particularly to those whose livelihood it can affect so greatly, and many attempts have been made to find a reliable and accurate way of providing man with information well in advance of the event.
There have always been methods adopted by individuals, comical like those described above, but many seriously developed over the years from constant observations of the natural world. However, as the Scientific Age progressed in the second half of the 18th century, attempts were made to develop theories based on provable scientific fact. A popular theory over the years, rested on the thesis that weather patterns occur in a predictable way, so that if detailed records are kept, it should be possible to find out the length of the cycle for this recurrence to take place.
In 1890, Eduard Bruckner, a German geographer and meteorologist, turned his mind to this question. He was commissioned by the Russian Government to study changing levels in the Caspian Sea, which caused dislocation of transport. This study, together with weather data from Europe, led him to believe that there was a 35-year cycle affecting weather, and thus the changing levels in the Caspian Sea. This became to be known as the Bruckner Cycle, and was incorporated into the investigations of many subsequent long-range forecasters.
People in Bright Sparcs - Bond, George Grant; Ogg, J. Cumming
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Bureau of Meteorology |  |
© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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