Some History of Astro-Meteorology

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The first known work on weather and the atmosphere was The Meteorologica by the Greek philosopher-scientist Aristotle (384 B.C. to 322 B.C.). His pupil, Theophrastus expanded this early treatise in two works “On Winds” and “On the Signs of Rain, Winds, Storms, and Fair Weather.”

These were the sole authorities on meteorology until scientific investigations began in the 17th Century. (Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, 152 A.D. quoted brief excerpts).

In 1686, Dr. J. Goad’s Astro-meteorologica, based on 39 years of his own astro-weather observations and correlations, was published in London. Until the end of the 19th Century this text was the leading authority on the subject. It includes a transcript of astronomer Johannes Kepler’s diary of astro-weather observations from June 28, 1617 to August 9, 1629. Here Kepler expounded some of his theories relating planetary phenomena to atmospheric changes. It is a matter of historical record that he attained recognition for his remarkably accurate long-range weather forecasting long before advancing his laws of planetary motion. Kepler’s “Mysterium Cosmographicum” is a fully documented record of his work from 1602 to 1629. Some scientists who have written disparagingly of the renowned Kepler’s interest in correlating planetary phenomena to terrestrial events have rendered a disservice to the progress of science.

Critically tested astro-weather forecasts during the last century, ventured for various parts of the world more than a year in advance, support and confirm Kepler’s theories. He discovered that additional magnetic angles of 30, 45, 135 and 150 degrees between celestial bodies synchronized perfectly with atmospheric reactions.

Commander R. J. Morrison of the Royal Navy, publisher of the world known Zadkiel’s Almanac more than a century ago, further refined his predecessors’ discoveries with a more modern scientific approach.

Morrison’s successor, Dr. Alfred J. Pearce (1840-1923), continued the Almanac from 1876 for forty years. He also published his “Weather Guide” in London during 186r, The Science of the Stars in 1881, and completed a magnum opus—his Textbook Vol. II in 1889. In this expanded work, Pearce evolved new techniques from his own observations with detailed instructions in the method. He cited case histories and voluminous data to support and rationalize the theory of astro-meteorology.

Observations of solar radiation and sunspots will never lead to the discovery of the laws which regulate the weather. The atmosphere is often liable to unusual and long continued impressions, and these are induced by planetary action on the earth as well as on the Sun. Based on many years of specialized experience with astro-meteorology, we are convinced that to abandon this research is to render the discovery of the laws which regulate the weather, hopeless.

G.J. McCormack
1965