A Time of Turbulence

Abstract

Lucretius sought rational, deterministic explanations for the weather. These turned out to be wrong, but one suspects that the Roman philosopher may have guessed this for himself. He wrote that it was better to venture on an incorrect rational explanation than to submit to superstition: no sacrifices for him to propitiate the gods. And no sacrifices, except of time and effort, for those who during the past hundred years or so have wrestled to turn meteorology into a science.

This dread and darkness of the mind cannot be dispelled by sunbeams, the shining shafts of day, but only by an understanding of the outward from and inner working of nature... First, then, the reason why the blue expenses of heaven are shaken by thunder... As for lightning, it is caused when many seeds of fire have been squeezed out... The formulation of clouds is due to the sudden coalescence...

—Lucretius, On the Nature of Things