Institutional Typhoon Research in the Philippines: Local Developments and Regional Interactions, 1860s-1930s

Abstract

Since the late nineteenth century, meteorological institutions were established and have flourished in various territories in the western Pacific region. These institutions served as significant scientific enterprises that served both the local economic objectives of government and the regional and global initiatives on scientific knowledge production on weather and the environment. Meteorological observatories became centers of a calculative approach and sources of more scientific knowledge on atmospheric phenomena such as tropical cyclones and typhoons, as well as up-to-date support for mercantile shipping and trade.

This paper narrates the scientific textualizations on tropical cyclones, and typhoons in particular, through the examination of the institutional scientific activities of the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila (OMM) and the Philippine Weather Bureau (PWB) from the 1860s to the 1940s. The scientific textualizations were manifested through local initiatives to investigate the scientific nature of Philippine tropical cyclones and typhoons and how the institutional work on meteorology expanded to various territories and contributed to the regional and global growth of knowledge networks on tropical cyclones and typhoons. The scientific work and activities of the OMM and PWB laid down the foundation of meteorological infrastructure in the Philippines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and they became active scientific institutions in the western Pacific region.