When I was a young child growing up in Concord, N.H., over five decades ago I lived the life of a rural northern New Englander. Similar to my parents, my grandparents and the generations of my ancestors that lived in Concord before me. We accepted the weather and attempted to limit our youthful opinions. If the weather was hot, we simply went swimming at the quarries. If the snow was falling and deep, we went sledding or snow shoeing, in addition to asking the old-time locals if they wanted us to shovel their walks and driveways. With short term employment ushered in by the most recent snowstorm we earned money when this winter opportunity presented itself. There were many fond memories that accompanied our winter and summer weather. The summers seemed hotter and the winter snow seemed much deeper in my youth.
The history of weather forecasting finds roots dating back many centuries, early civilizations used reoccurring astronomical and meteorological events to make some predictions. People figured out very early that we had a summer, fall, winter and spring. When this cycle continued it simply started all over again. It was the Babylonians back around 650 BC that first attempted to predict the short-term weather that arrived in most cases unannounced. A sudden storm approaching without notice could destroy crops, harm livestock and extract a hearty toll overall. The Babylonians observed the clouds and other phenomena to make the short-term weather forecasts.
We find Aristotle publishing a book in 340 BC called Meteorological. With his thoughts known to be steeped in a philosophical way he added various theories pertaining to rain, clouds, wind and other weather-related events. Aristotle was viewed as an authority on the subject and people held his thoughts closely for almost two thousand years regarding this subject. The great thinkers continued to make attempts with every approaching storm to predict weather patterns to enhance their lives over the centuries. The thought process of weather predictions necessitated the need to develop instruments relating to the atmosphere that were both accurate and trustworthy, hence the invention of the hygrometer. The hygrometer could measure humidity in the air with one of the first known, designed and described by Nicholas Cusa in the mid fifteenth century. A century later Galileo Galilei invented an early thermometer in 1592 with Evangelista Torricelli inventing the barometer to measure atmospheric pressure in 1643.
Over the next centuries we find these instruments being refined time and again as theories and technology of the day continued to evolve. People started to look skyward more and more, using their instruments they made their predictions, some with accuracy while others sadly not so. It was the invention of the telegraph and the series of networks the telegraph provided that provided a giant step forward for the local weathermen during the 19th century. Information was recorded and transmitted rapidly from town to town. If a hurricane occurred in a small town and was headed in a westerly direction the local weathermen transmitted this information via telegraph to the towns to the west to forewarn them about the impending doom. With this data primitive weather maps were drawn and studied to further develop the science behind predictions.
Weather stations continued to evolve around the globe and synoptic weather forecasting began. During the 1920’s radiosonde was invented providing a leap forward for those predicting the weather. Radiosonde monitored high altitude patterns with small lightweight boxes carried high into the atmosphere in a helium filled balloon. The small boxes hosted transmitters that sent information or soundings once the balloon burst at the altitude of thirty kilometers. The transmissions were recorded on the ground as they fell to earth and history was made.
While the art of weather forecasting continued to progress, we find a little piece of local history both related and quite fascinating here in our little town of Concord. A gentleman named William Foster possessed a keen interest in the weather, especially when it related to predictions. Concord citizen William Foster started recording our weather during the year 1856 each and every day. William enjoyed the weather to such a high degree that he never stopped recording his observations. William Foster was one of the first voluntary weather observers upon the organization of the Government Weather Bureau in 1884 and continued to record his weather every day until his death on Aug. 13, 1897. Foster recorded his decades of weather data in the western part of Concord at an elevation 71 feet higher than his first established observation point. Prior to 1868 Foster did not use established self-registering maximum and minimum thermometers. He preferred to measure the elements himself to ensure the accuracy of his notes and records. William Foster would provide the daily weather, high and low temperatures for the day, the mean temperature for each day as well as the mean temperature for each year.
Foster would record every inch of rain and snow that fell upon Concord during his years of very accurate duty. Foster utilized a standard weather gauge to record this precipitation, a cylindrical pail about eight inches in diameter where the contents could be poured into a vessel of a diameter enough smaller to multiple the depth of the liquid by ten, rendering it easy to obtain a measurement accurate even to the hundredths of an inch. Until November 1884, snow was not melted for inclusion with this process. Foster estimated that an inch of snow would on average contain nine one-hundredths of an inch of water. Starting that November in 1884 Foster carefully melted all Concord ice and snow for measurement.
As I sit with candlelight late this evening reading the William Foster recorded weather transcripts, I find myself amused. Amused by this gentleman long dead for his comments at times exceeded the day-to-day records relating to his decades of information. In September, 1865 William states in his records “Extreme drought; worse than last year. This drought is unprecedented.”
In February 1868, William recorded “Probably the coldest month of which any record exists in the state.” I do believe his statements to be true. It was indeed a cold winter back in 1868, for “the mercury fell below zero for the 35th time this winter.”
I have enjoyed my late evening with William Foster, the keeper of ancient weather records here in Concord. I bid you, my faithful readers, a safe and enjoyable Labor Day weekend.
Vintage Views is a local history column that explores Concord and its surrounding towns. It runs every week in the Sunday Your Life section. The author is a historian and not a member of the Monitor’s staff.