Antonín Fiala

Antonín Fiala was a Czech amateur meteorologist and a well-known Prague eccentric at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He spent his youth in Slané. After losing his property, he moved to Prague, where he lived as a beggar, calling himself "Prague's first privileged weather prophet" and making a living by selling weather tickets for the next day. He sold them to guests in restaurants and sometimes to newspaper editors. His predictions were mostly very general, often wrong; newspapers usually published them in the form of advertisements or semi-serious reports. His quirky demeanor made him popular in society and mentioned in the press and magazines both during his life and long after his death.