Andrija Mohorovičić as a meteorologist

Abstract

Andrija Mohorovičić’s meteorology-related activities are reviewed. It is shown that he was involved in teaching and professional work in meteorology throughout his professional career, and in meteorological research until his early forties – i.e. before switching to seismological research and arriving at the famous discovery of discontinuity between the Earth’s crust and its mantle. Mohorovičić taught meteorology at the Nautical School in Bakar (1882–1891) and later at the University of Zagreb (since 1894). As for the professional engagement in meteorology, his major achievements were foundation of meteorological station in Bakar (1887), start of meteorological forecasting in Croatia (1893), and establishment of the network of Croatian meteorological stations (1901). Mohorovičić’s meteorological research included, but was not limited to, the climatological investigation of clouds and their movements in the Bakar area, the study of tornado that struck Novska, and an early study of the Zagreb climate conditions. As demonstrated in a recent publication, Mohorovičić also made pioneering contribution to the investigation of atmospheric rotors, by describing in some detail a vortex with horizontal axis he had observed from Bakar (1889); this discovery influenced later research of similar phenomena in England and Germany, but was forgotten by the international scientific community some fifty years later.