oa Weerpraatjes

Weather talk. The public breakthrough of weather forecasts in the Netherlands, 1930-1950

When did weather forecasts become a part of everyday life? In this paper I argue that the period from 1930 to 1950 was crucial in the development of public weather forecasts in the Netherlands – more than half a century after the introduction of scientific weather forecasts c.1880. This period saw a change in the scientific foundation of the forecasts, as well as a new public-oriented communication approach. I argue that weather reports were an integral part of the new radio-centered media culture, and that they played an important, if inconspicuous, role in postwar scarcity management and reconstruction efforts. This paper is based on rich archival research, including a collection of unique letters from radio listeners from 1947.