Czech Hydrometeorological Institute Information Service Centre

The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute offers a publication by Karel Krška and Ferdinand Šamaj entitled:

The History of Meteorology in the Czech Lands and in Slovakia

The publication is the first work to deal systematically and comprehensively with weather monitoring and forecasting and with the research of the climate on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia, as well as with the personalities and institutions that have contributed to the development of meteorology as a science, a service and a branch of education, from ancient times up to the present. It was preceded by a number of analytical articles and surveys, papers on historical meteorological subjects, biographical studies, portraits of personalities and recollections by a number of authors, which proves that the historical aspects of Czechoslovak meteorology have not been neglected.

The book is divided into three parts coinciding with important periods of Czech and Slovak history. Each part is introduced by a survey of achievements in world meteorology and is supplemented with a list of sources the authors have used.

The first part covers the period before the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, i.e. from ancient times until 1918, the second one records the relatively short history of the First Czechoslovak Republic, i.e. the period from 1919 to 1938 and the third one then is devoted to the post-Munich period, i.e. the Second Republic, the period of the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the wartime Slovak Republic and post-war Czechoslovakia, which ceased to exist at the end of 1992 and split into two independent states, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

The book contains 568 pages, 61 black and white photos in the text and 53 colour photographs on separate pages. The publication is in Czech with English summary on 36 pages.