Today was the birthday in 1794 of George Merryweather, the inventor of his era’s most fascinating leech-based weather predicting contraption: the tempest prognosticator.
Today in 2004, a 10 year old managed to save a lot of people from a massive tsunami because she remembered a lesson she’d learned in school about what happens right before a tsunami hits. Good thing she was listening.
Around this time of year, the Tiwi Islands in northern Australia can start counting on pretty much the same thunderstorm showing up at the same time every day. It's so reliable, they even named it.
Today in 1884, A.A. Adams of Kansas took what is the earliest-known photo of a tornado. Early storm photos are pretty remarkable, for a lot of reasons.
Today in 1948, two meteorologists helped make things safer for those living in the path of severe storms, when they issued the first successful tornado warning.
The earliest guitar-like instrument we've been able to find appears to have belonged to Har-Mose, who played for Queen Hatshepsut 3500 years ago in ancient Egypt.
Storm damage isn't cool, weird or awesome, but the ways we spot storms and warn people about them are pretty great. And they've come a long way from the time when the US Army Signal Corps banned anyone from using the word “tornado” in forecasts so as not to scare the public!
