Precipitation Imminent

"Which brings us to Luke Howard (1772-1864), Quaker, meteorologist, and small businessman... After Howard, it was possible to be precise about things which had previously only been described in the loosest terms; to espouse a kind of pseudo-scientific terminology, a reading of omens, signs in the heavens, that was almost respectable. The sky became a spreadsheet, a curved screen on which intimations of the futures market could be sketched and interpreted. Disinterested obseration came to excuse prophetic hucksterism, a gambler's climate: the computer terminal, with its advancing pressure systems, was an updated version of the gypsy's crystal ball."
--Iain Sinclair, 'Bulls & Bears & Mithraic Misalignments: Weather In The City', from Lights Out For The Territory