The Natural Navigator

What a great thought of God was that when He thought a tree!
—John Ruskin

The nineteenth-century French physicist Francois Arago wrote, "Whatever may be the progress of the sciences, never will observers who are trustworthy and careful of their reputations venture to foretell the weather." Weather forecasting is a much derided science to this day because it remains so inexact. This is because while the weather is governed by easily determined factors such as air pressure, humidity, and temperature, the system is so complex that a slight error in reading of the data can quickly become compounded and lead to an inaccurate forecast.