<P> In 904 AD, Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture discussed the weather forecasting of atmospheric changes and signs from the planetary astral alterations; signs of rain based on observation of the lunar phases; and weather forecasts based on the movement of winds . </P> <P> Ancient weather forecasting methods usually relied on observed patterns of events, also termed pattern recognition . For example, it might be observed that if the sunset was particularly red, the following day often brought fair weather . This experience accumulated over the generations to produce weather lore . However, not all of these predictions prove reliable, and many of them have since been found not to stand up to rigorous statistical testing . </P> <P> It was not until the invention of the electric telegraph in 1835 that the modern age of weather forecasting began . Before that, the fastest that distant weather reports could travel was around 100 miles per day (160 km / d), but was more typically 40--75 miles per day (60--120 km / day) (whether by land or by sea). By the late 1840s, the telegraph allowed reports of weather conditions from a wide area to be received almost instantaneously, allowing forecasts to be made from knowledge of weather conditions further upwind . </P> <P> The two men credited with the birth of forecasting as a science were officer of the Royal Navy Francis Beaufort and his protégé Robert FitzRoy . Both were influential men in British naval and governmental circles, and though ridiculed in the press at the time, their work gained scientific credence, was accepted by the Royal Navy, and formed the basis for all of today's weather forecasting knowledge . </P>

What is the name for a weather forecaster