Astrometeorological Weather Prediction at the Time of the Societas Meteorological Palatina

Astrometeorology was based on the idea that the position of the planets in relation to each other and to the signs of the zodiac would influence terrestrial weather. Due to this astronomers were asked to prepare “prognosticas“ (weather predictions), which required comprehensive mathematical and astronomical knowledge. Astrometeorology had its heyday during the 16th century, when 213 authors demonstrably wrote 878 “prognostica” (Lüdecke 1999). In his great book of ephemerides, astronomer Johann Stöffler (1452-1531) had predicted a disaster for 2 February 1524, which was generally interpreted as a flood. Although this flood never came, faith in astrometeorology was not broken.