Geografie 2013, 118, 334-355
The meteorological observations made by Alexander Zawadzki in Brno, 1861–1867
The observations made by Pavel Olexík in 1848 are accepted as the beginning of standardised meteorological measurements in Brno. Three times every day, from September 1861 to December 1867, Professor Alexander Zawadzki, a teacher of physics and botany at a Brno technical secondary school, kept recording the values of air pressure, air temperature, precipitation, wind and atmospheric phenomena. His observation diary also includes phenological data and information about meteorological and other natural events across the Czech Lands and Europe. Because there is neither a great distance nor difference in altitude between the places in which Zawadzki and Olexík made their observations, the pressure and temperature readings show only negligible divergences. The differences are not significant for wind direction, precipitation totals and days with rain and snow, but they are greater for atmospheric phenomena. The contemporary meteorological activities of Gregor Johann Mendel also vastly contributed to Brno becoming an important centre of meteorology in the eastern part of the Czech Lands in the 1860s.
Keywords
meteorological observation, air pressure, air temperature, precipitation, wind, atmospheric phenomena, Alexander Zawadzki, Pavel Olexík, Brno.
