Richardson's Fantastic Forecast Factory (Posted on 3/12/2015)
In 1922 mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson published a remarkable book, Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, describing his attempt to forecast changes in the weather by numerical means. In Chapter 11 of his book, Richardson presented what he called his fantasy, describing in detail his remarkable vision of an enormous building with thousands of (human) computers calculating the future weather.
Several artists have created illustrations of the forecast factory. One such image has recently come to light. This painting was made by Stephen Conlin in 1986. The painting has been displayed in an obscure location within the Department of Computer Science in Trinity College, Dublin and has gone unnoticed for many years. It is a remarkable work, rich in detail and replete with hidden gems.
A description of the image has recently been installed on the website of the European Meteorological Society: www.emetsoc.org/resources/rff/. There is a very high resolution version of the picture there, with a zoom facility developed by Hendrik Hoffmann. A paper describing Conlin's painting is due to appear in “Weather” magazine in early 2016.
“Weather Forecasting Factory” by Stephen Conlin, 1986. Based on the description in Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, by L.F. Richardson, Cambridge University Press, 1922, and on advice from Prof. John Byrne, Trinity College Dublin.
Image: ink and water colour, c. 50 x 38.5 cm. © Stephen Conlin 1986. All Rights Reserved.
References
• Lynch, Peter, 2006: The Emergence of Numerical Weather Prediction: Richardson's Dream. Cambridge University Press, 279pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-521-857291.
• Peter Lynch, 2016: An Artist's Impression of Richardson's Fantastic Forecast Factory. To appear in Weather. Preprint.
• Richardson, Lewis Fry, 1922: Numerical Prediction by Numerical Process, Cambridge Univ. Press. Second Edition (corrected version of the original with a new Foreward by Peter Lynch), Cambridge University Press 2007: ISBN: 978-0-521-68044-8.
Contributed by Peter Lynch, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University College Dublin.
