Framing Asian atmospheres: imperial weather science and the problem of the local c. 1880-1950.

Abstract

‘ It would be of the greatest importance to meteorology ’ , noted the editor of the Singapore Chronicle in 1829, ‘ if a set of hourly meteorological observations could be instituted at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Singapore, Malacca, and some station on the elevated plains of Hindostan ’ . 1 Of course, the author ’ s comments speak from a uniquely imperial perspec-tive, whereby such observations would benefit the colonial service of – in this case – the British Empire, enabling enhanced knowledge of imperial atmospheres and the related economic and scientific benefits that this could bring. That meteorology was closely linked to empire and imperial control has long been acknowledged, as the ability to insti-tutionalize knowledge about an environment, and thus to define what constituted legit-imate knowledge, was ultimately a question of power. 2 In Asia, a long history of weather observation was gradually pushed into institutional scientific spaces after the 1860s, with key observatories in Tokyo, Shanghai, Manila and Hong Kong, and meteorological services in India and across the China coast. 3 This shift is attributed to the recog-nition that the science was critical to state building, especially for increasing agricultural yields; for safeguarding nascent aviation services, the latter particularly critical during the Asia-Pacific War; and for enabling better prediction systems for extremes of weather. 4