Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Weather By The Moon
Early Moon
Watchers
In 450B.C. the Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his
book On The Heavens, had noted that the Earth had to be a
round sphere rather than a round plate because eclipses of
the Moon were caused by the Earth coming between the
Sun and the Moon. Before him, in 450BC Anaxagoras of
Clazomenae reasoned that because the Earth’s shadow on
the Moon is curved, the earth itself must be spherical. If
the Earth had been a flat disk, the shadow would have been
elongated and elliptical.
The Athenian ‘Tower Of The Four Winds’ dates back
to the First Century BC. An early observatory,
it displays on its eight
faces, carved figures representing
the eight winds recognised by Aristotle
three centuries earlier. Aristotle
had divided winds into two
classes, polar and equatorial, and
described with amazingccuracy the
weather and the month likely to
occur for each.
The most industrious compiler of classical weather
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