History of Meteorology

Connecting Oceanic Asia: Production and Application of Meteorological Knowledge

2025-08-29T14:46:41+00:00

Scientific Textualizations of Tropical Cyclones in the Philippines: The Scientific Activities of the Observatorio Meteorológico de Manila (OMM) and Philippine Weather Bureau (PWB), 1860s-1940s

2024-08-01T17:40:42+00:00

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.

Constructing a Red Meteorological Network: The Production and Utilization of Meteorological Knowledge in Yan'an During WWII

2024-07-22T16:11:49+00:00

In 1944, the U.S. Army Observation Group arrived in Yan’an to establish formal contact with the Communist Party of China. Concurrently, driven by the demand for meteorological intelligence to support U.S. operations against Japan in the Pacific theater, the group collaborated with the CPC to set up meteorological training teams and weather stations in Yan’an. However, this cooperative chapter in the history of meteorology was later obscured by Cold War narratives emphasizing Sino-American ideological conflict. This article seeks to review the history of meteorological science diplomacy between the United States and the CPC, focusing on the U.S.’s role in establishing a “Red Meteorological Network” and the localization of meteorological knowledge in Yan’an. This collaboration not only facilitated U.S. military operations in the Pacific theater but also trained the first generation of meteorological workers for the People’s Republic of China after its founding in 1949. Through this unique pathway of meteorological knowledge transfer shaped by specific historical circumstances, the article critically reflects on Cold War narratives that overemphasize ideological confrontation. It shows that the interplay between the flow of scientific knowledge and diplomatic engagement offers a critical lens for understanding the historical roots of Sino-American relations even for today.

William Doberck and the Chinese Maritime Customs Meteorological Standards Germination

2024-06-26T03:07:18+00:00

After a review of the publications issued by the Chinese Maritime Customs, it is evident that William Doberck, the inaugural director of the Hong Kong Observatory, imparted expert advice on meteorological observations to the Chinese Maritime Customs department in the late 19th century. While Doberck's directorship at the Hong Kong Observatory (1883-1907) proved professionally contentious, his scholarly legacy endures through two meteorological works: Instructions for Making Meteorological Observations Prepared for Use in China (1883), establishing standardized meteorological recording protocols, and The Law of Storms in the Eastern Seas (1886), an analytical treatise on typhoon pattern. In 1887, the Director of the General Administration of the Chinese Maritime Customs, co-published these two works of Doberck. Specifically, the Instructions for Making Meteorological Observations Prepared for Use in China as a guiding document for the customs' meteorological work during that era. During this collaborative period, Doberck's insights on meteorological observations served as the foundation for the Chinese Maritime Customs Meteorological Observation instructions, which were adopted at several meteorological stations. The objective of this study is to trace Doberck's interactions with Customs, analyze the utilization of his publications and summarize the significance of Doberck and his works in guiding meteorological efforts by Customs during this period.

Climate Regionalization in China: A Historical Perspective on Scientific Development and National Building

2024-07-12T00:57:38+00:00

This study explores China’s climate regionalization as a scientific practice that universalizes local knowledge to advance modernization. By analyzing how scientists like Zhu Kezhen adapted international classification systems to reconcile universal standards with indigenous traditions, the research shows climate regionalization as both a tool for scientific knowledge production and a means to align local knowledge with global science. By endowing natural and cultural boundaries (e.g., the Qinling-Huaihe Line) with scientific significance, scientists embedded climate regionalization within geographical and nation building initiatives, a process that ultimately ushered climatology research toward maturity and autonomy. This process of scientizing local knowledge not only shaped national science, but also positioned climate regionalization at the intersection of scientific practice, knowledge universalization, and nation-building.

The Development and Application of Marine Meteorology in China: A Case Study of Dinghai Meteorological Station, 1930s-1940s

2024-09-13T13:28:52+00:00

Throughout the history of modern meteorology in China, marine meteorology was considered to be an important aspect. This article focuses on the Dinghai Meteorological Station in Zhejiang in the middle-eastern coast of China and expounds on the process of China’s development of marine meteorological research in the 1930s and 1940s, emphasising its transformation from passive development to active promotion. In the earlier years of the Republic of China, the research regarding marine meteorology primarily examined cyclones. However, such activity was dominated by the foreign-built Zikawei Observatory in Shanghai and the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, which was under foreign influence. This issue was minimised following the recovery of the Qingdao Observatory which began conducting marine meteorological observations and represented the beginning of China's studies in this direction. With the emergence of native expertise in marine meteorology, China constructed the Dinghai Meteorological Station. Marine meteorology research at this station was not entirely government led; local fishing communities actively participated in this scientific infrastructural development, partially funding construction while demanding maritime warning services in return. With the completion of the Dinghai Meteorological Station, China not only observed marine meteorological information but also established a basic network for marine meteorology in the late 1940s. However, archival evidence reveals persistent challenges in station operations, including funding shortages, personnel limitations, and wartime social disruptions. Through multi-archival analysis, this study demonstrates how constrained resources shaped China's marine meteorological development trajectory so as to acquire marine knowledge.

Health and Weather in Unfavourable Environments: Exploring the Historical Dynamics of Colonial Medical Meteorology in nineteenth-century Tropical Asia

2024-01-19T15:00:00+00:00

Medical meteorology had a long precedent in medical thought across Eastern and Western traditions. This article considers the tradition of medical meteorology that was favoured by Western doctors in the nineteenth century, which was often applied within colonial contexts to the understanding of new climates and how they might impact on human health. Looking at British-held tropical and sub-tropical colonies of the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong respectively, medical meteorology was stimulated by the new pathological and atmospheric conditions that European explorers and settlers now inhabited in the name of the British Empire. They brought with them concepts of disease causation and of climate underpinned by centuries of Hippocratic and Aristotelian thought that was by 1800 merging with newer empirical and systematic, observation-based scientific method. Drawing on the ancient theoretical grounding, climate was thought to play a significant role in determining human health, nature, and development which, combined with an emerging body of new instrumental weather observations enabled doctors to look for patterns of cause and effect between climate and the human condition or particular and extreme weathers and disease.[1]

[1] Heymann, 2010, pp. 582-583.

An Enduring Vision: Qingdao Observatory and the Transnational Meteorology in Modern China, 1898–1937

2024-12-13T12:53:32+00:00

This paper examines the transformations of Qingdao Observatory from the late 19th to the mid-20th century under German, Japanese, and Chinese administrations. While existing research often frames Qingdao Observatory within German colonial science and Chinese national science, this study adopts a transnational perspective and employs network as an alternative analytical unit to highlight the continuity of local practices and the shared pursuit of cross-border collaborations. By tracing the interconnected history of Qingdao Observatory across temporal and spatial (planar and vertical) dimensions, this paper argues that competing struggles for sovereignty, diplomatic negotiations, and diverse political discourses—including colonialism, Pan-Asianism, and nationalism—fostered scientific cooperation and shaped new communities. More broadly, this research illustrates how opposing states and ideologies not only jointly constructed the transnational meteorology in modern China, but also collectively contributed to the formation of multiple scientific networks across East Asia.

Weather and the Public: A Study of Weather Forecast Information in The Eastern Times

2024-07-22T16:00:28+00:00

Since the mid-19th century, newspapers have been crucial for disseminating meteorological information to the public. Western meteorological knowledge entered China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with weather forecasts appearing in Chinese newspapers by the early 20th century. This paper analyzes The Eastern Time, a key Chinese newspaper in Shanghai during the late Qing and Republic of China periods. It compares the meteorological content in two phases of The Eastern Time, revealing significant differences in the types of meteorological elements and concerns highlighted. The study examines the reasons behind these variations by considering the perspectives of newspaper proprietors and the evolving cognitive history of the public. A similar comparison with the English newspaper The North China Daily News from the same period shows that its content was more extensive than The Eastern Time’s first phase and similar to its second phase. This highlights the discrepancies in public perception between Chinese and Western contexts, offering insight into the evolution of public perception in China. Over time, The Eastern Time's readership expanded from intellectuals to a broader population, reflecting increased public exposure to and acceptance of Western meteorological knowledge since the Republic of China’s establishment. However, traditional Chinese conceptual frameworks still affect public comprehension of meteorological concepts, illustrating the prolonged and challenging process of integrating Western meteorological knowledge into Chinese culture.