History, Natural History & the Arts
Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History is taking a production break. It will be back with all new episodes on April 21, 2020. In the meantime, BFW is featuring some older episodes that will help you get a feel for the vast nature of early American history.
We’re living in a period of climate change. Our Earth has been getting warmer since the mid-19th century.
The new book Howell’s Storm: New York City’s Official Rainmaker and the 1950 Drought by Jim Leeke (Chicago Review Press, 2018) is a fascinating account of an untold New York tale of how Dr. Wallace E. Howell was hired to create rain during a 1950 drought.
Using a scientific method that he called “rain stimulation,” Howell undertook a $50,000 project that yielded still-controversial results. Complete with photographs of Howell during the unpredictable snow storm of April 1950 and New York citizens during the record-breaking Thanksgiving flooding, Leeke describes the history and legal ramifications of experimental meteorology through the story of one remarkable New York year. [Read more…] about Howell’s Storm: NYC’s Official Rainmaker
Nancy Solomon, Director of Long Island Traditions and Curator of the In Harm’s Way exhibition at LIM, will lead a guided tour of the exhibit at the Long Island Museum on Sunday, December 3rd, at 2 pm.
This exhibit focuses on Superstorm Sandy and other historic storms that have affected the region, exploring hurricanes and how communities prepare for natural disasters and rebuild after the storm. [Read more…] about ‘In Harm’s Way’ Exhibit And Gallery Tour
A few weeks ago, I wrote here about old-time weather forecaster Billy Spinner. As a follow-up on that theme, here is some interesting information on our own weather history from forty years ago, taken from one of my old journals. [Read more…] about Tired Of The Weather? Consider The 1960s and 1970s
A new exhibit opening at the New York State Museum in Albany on Saturday, “Weather Event,” focuses on Charles E. Burchfield’s depictions of the weather south of Lake Erie, where the artist lived for most of his life. Individual weather events are examined through both an artistic, historic, and scientific lens.
Burchfield’s representations of weather, wind, skies and sounds are unique historical records of the environment near Lake Erie. In 1915, Burchfield made a series of sketches that show the changing weather and position of the sun over the course of several hours, which he called all-day sketches. Decades later, a 1950 journal entry recounts “The Day the Sun Disappeared over Western New York.” [Read more…] about Weather History Exhibit at NYS Museum
Tornados in upstate New York, like those that struck recently in the Capital Region, are comparatively rare events, but are by no means anything new. Similar storms in the past have wreaked devastation in New York and New England, but few have had the incredible impact of the twister that struck northern Franklin County on June 30, 1856. The results bore strong similarities to the recent destruction near Oklahoma City.
The storm system caused chaos across the North Country, in lower Quebec, and in northern Vermont as well, but the villages of Burke and Chateaugay in New York bore the brunt of the damage when a tornado touched down, causing destruction of historic proportions. [Read more…] about NY Weather History: The 1856 Chateauguay Tornado