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In an age when a storm was evidence of God´s wrath, pioneering meteorologists had to fight against convention and religious dogma to realise their ambitions. This book features Luke Howard, the first to classify the clouds, Francis Beaufort, quantifier of the winds, and, James Glaisher, explorer of the upper atmosphere by way of a hot air balloon.

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Book of the Week on Radio 4 ´Gripping´ The Times´Exhilarating´ Sunday Times

In an age when a storm was evidence of God´s wrath, pioneering meteorologists had to fight against convention and religious dogma to realise their ambitions. But buoyed by the achievements of the Enlightenment, a generation of mavericks set out to unlock the secrets of the atmosphere.

Meet Luke Howard, the first to classify the clouds, Francis Beaufort, quantifier of the winds, James Glaisher, explorer of the upper atmosphere by way of a hot air balloon, Samuel Morse, whose electric telegraph gave scientists the means by which to transmit weather warnings, and at the centre of it all Admiral Robert FitzRoy: master sailor, scientific pioneer and founder of the Met Office.
Peter Moore´s exhilarating account navigates treacherous seas, rough winds and uncovers the obsession that drove these men to great invention and greater understanding.

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"Richly researched, exciting... It is both scientific and cultural history, of prizewinning potential and as fresh and exhilarating throughout as a strong sea breeze." James McConnachie Sunday Times

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Peter Moore is a writer, journalist and lecturer. He teaches creative writing at City University and the University of Oxford. His first book, Damn His Blood, reconstructed a rural murder in 1806. His second, The Weather Experiment, a Sunday Times bestseller, traced early efforts to forecast the weather. He lives in London.

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