BEGINNING OF MODERN METEOROLOGICAL MEASUREMENTS IN FIUME (RIJEKA)

Abstract

When reporting on extreme weather conditions in the city of Rijeka (former Fiume), it is often specified „ ... since the beginning of measurements in 1948“. In reality the modern meteorological measurements in Fiume had started already in 1868, when the Austrian Imperial Academy of Science established the meteorological station. The station was operating at the Naval Academy, under the supervision of prof. dr. Emil Stahlberger, the first university professor of physics in Fiume (Rijeka). The following year the station was equipped with mareograph (marigraph/tide gauge). Based on three years measurements, prof. Stahlberger published the first book on tides in the Rijeka bay (Ueber die Ebbe und Flut in der Rhede von Fiume). After his sudden death, Prof. Peter Salcher, his succesor at the Physics chair at the Naval academy, took charge of the Meteorological station. In 1884. He published the book entitled Climate in Rijeka and Opatija (Das Klima von Fiume und Abbazia). The meteorological data in the book are presented in the very same way as it is done today, and therefore these data can be used for comparative purposes regarding climate variations/ changes.