Early Weather Forecasting on the Prairie
September 23, 2020 — The weather is a continual companion, with its whims and follies, highs and lows, bitterness and warmth. And for many of us, our daily routine begins with a check of the forecast. However, a good forecast was not always easy to come by.
During much of human history, storms and droughts were seen through the lens of religion or superstition, with weather patterns owing to the judgment of higher powers. In 1542 King Henry the VIII of England outlawed predicting the weather as part of the Witchcraft Act. Prognosticating weather was seen as sorcery, punishable by death!
Fortunately for a Mr. Martin of Medora, Dakota Territory, by the 1880s monitoring and predicting the weather was no longer a capital crime. In fact, it was becoming an indispensable service.
On this date in 1885, Mr. Martin received a package from the National Weather Bureau with supplies needed to become a volunteer weather observer. Mr.
Martin had been contributing his observations to the Bad Lands Cow Boy newspaper, providing a service for cattle ranchers. But the chief of the Weather Bureau in Washington also appreciated his efforts, and encouraged him to continue.
Mr. Martin was one of many in the nation who volunteered to gather weather observations for the US Signal Service, which oversaw the National Weather Bureau. The Signal Service was established during the Civil War, and its network of telegraph communications were being utilized to consolidate national data on weather patterns. As the Little Rock, Arkansas Gazette, states in 1884:
There is not a thinking man…who does not realize the great value of the systematic dissemination of weather statistics and warnings, such as the Signal Service is furnishing the whole country…
The National Weather Bureau continued to grow, and in 1891 it became a civilian, rather than a military enterprise, and was moved to the Dept. of Agriculture. It was in the 1950s, post-World War II, that weather technology made another big leap forward as a byproduct of war. The radar technology used to monitor enemy movements was found effective in detecting precipitation and weather patterns. The 1990s brought the development of Doppler Weather Radar, which made possible the storm warning systems we have today. However, even with all the advancements, completely accurate weather predictions remain inscrutably elusive. So, we close with this sentiment from an anonymous British poet:
Whether the weather be fine Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not. “Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org.