A translation of the paper "Presentation of some observations that could be made to shed light on Meteorology" by Johann Heinrich Lambert (1771)

Abstract

The Mulhouse mathematician Jean-Henri (or Johann Heinrich) Lambert (August 26 or 28, 1728; September 25, 1777) is well known for having devised the conformal conic projection in 1772, which is still used in some graphical outputs of our weather forecasting models, under the name "Lambert projection" Less well known is that he also devised the idea of a minimum temperature value corresponding to $-270${\deg}C in 1777, the year of his death and therefore 70 years before Lord Kelvin. But Johann Heinrich Lambert also published in 1771 an even lesser-known article, which is the subject of this publication. This article, written in Old French and published in a German journal, described in a rather striking manner the idea of a global observation network where the Earth would be divided into different zones where observers would record the same wind, temperature, pressure, and other current weather data at the same fixed times. The goal would then be to pool all this data to seek to understand how meteorological phenomena evolve in space and time, and to make meteorology a science on a par with astronomy.