Civil War ⋅ Page 1

Fighting on the Weather Front

MU meteorologists create a Civil War forecast 150 years back in time

One hundred fifty years ago, two armies battled each other and the weather in Missouri’s first significant Civil War battle. While the battle’s course is familiar to historians, virtually no scientific data is known about the atmospheric conditions that influenced the fighting.

Civil War Weather Detectives

Analyzing a rain shower that may have helped keep Missouri in the Union

A meteorology student at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources wants to plug this gap in the historical record. With guidance from the MU head of atmospheric science, he has become a weather detective, pulling together odd bits of meteorological flotsam from all over the world to compile a Missouri weather forecast almost 150 years backward in time.