The first newspaper weather map was published in the Times on 1 April 1875, the work of polymath Francis Galton, an explorer and anthropologist who was also a statistician and meteorologist.
The map was not a forecast, but a representation of the conditions of the previous day. This is known as a synoptic chart, meaning that it shows a summary of the weather situation. Readers could make their own predictions based on the information it provided.
Galton’s chart differs from the modern version only in minor details. It shows the temperature for each region, with dotted lines marking the boundaries of areas of different barometric pressures. It also describes the state of the sky in each land region, with terms such as “dull” or “cloud,” or the sea condition – “smooth” or “slight swell”.
By the late 19th century, it was becoming obvious that weather systems moved across the globe, making weather predictable, although the details of how this worked were still obscure. By presenting known facts, rather than risking a prediction that might be completely wrong, Galton avoided the ridicule heaped on newspaper weather forecasts that had been published fourteen years previously.
The weather chart was an instant hit, and has been a regular feature in newspapers worldwide ever since. Galton also developed a theory of anti-cyclones, which he discovered. However, he is now less known for his meteorology than for his work in eugenics, a word he invented, and for coining the phrase “nature versus nurture”.
