The stubborn old belief that certain weather precedes earthquakes
The article examines the long‑standing belief that certain weather conditions, such as hot and still air, precede earthquakes and labels it as pseudoscience. It traces the idea back to Aristotle, who linked earthquakes to trapped underground winds, and explains that modern science attributes quakes to tectonic plate movements. The persistence of the myth is attributed to psychological factors like heightened irritability during oppressive weather, which makes a subsequent tremor more memorable.
- ▪Aristotle in the 4th century BC suggested that earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in underground caves, leading to hot, calm surface weather before a quake.
- ▪Modern geology shows that earthquakes result from sudden slip along tectonic plate boundaries deep beneath the Earth’s surface, not from atmospheric conditions.
- ▪The notion of “earthquake weather” has survived for centuries despite lacking scientific support, often appearing in folklore and popular media.
- ▪Researchers propose that oppressive, sultry weather may increase irritability, causing people to remember a quake that follows such conditions more vividly.
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The stubborn old belief that certain weather precedes earthquakes Ellsworth Toohey 5:29 pm Sat Jul 25, 2026 earthquake weather — Unknown authorUnknown author / Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) The idea that a particular kind of weather — hot, still, and heavy — arrives just before an earthquake is old and stubborn. One geologist has called earthquake weather one of the most common pseudoscientific ways people try to predict quakes. You can trace it back to Aristotle, who argued in the 4th century BC that earthquakes were caused by winds trapped in underground caves. If a great mass of air was building up below, the reasoning went, the surface air would turn hot and calm first. Variations followed for centuries, including the claim that strange clouds appear about a week before a quake.
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