Clouds and breezy
This morning it is partly cloudy with a chance of snow, then clear. High of 28F with a windchill as low as 9F. Winds from the WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 20%.
Tonight it will be mostly cloudy. Low of 9F. Winds less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 20%.
The readings from my own weather instruments are:
The humidity is 63% with a dew point of 20.3ºF and a wind chill of 20.0ºF.
The temperature is 31.5ºF.
Presently we have West Southwest winds between 12.3 MPH and 19.1 MPH.
Our Barometric pressure is 29.79/HPA 1008.8 and rising with a weather graphic indicating clouds.
The UV rating is 0 out of 16, sunset will be at 4:14 PM with Moon Rise at 12:09 a.m. and the moon phase is in the Last Quarter.
For the pilots out there: Raw METAR is –
METAR KAUG 051153Z AUTO 28007G21KT 10SM FEW039 SCT046 BKN060 00/M06 A2983 RMK AO2 SLP107 T00001061 10000 21028 53038
Visibility is 10.0 miles/16.1 Kilometers with a few clouds to 3,900 ft / 1,188 m., scattered clouds to 4,600 ft / 1,402 m. and is mostly cloudy down to 6,000 ft / 1,828 m. so if you plan on flying today, I hope your IFR rating is current.
We have had a dusting of snow in this area in the past 24 hours.
Brains in the sky?
It can be a lot of fun to lie on your back, look up at the clouds and pick out interesting shapes. Early humans must have been truly puzzled by what, exactly, those puffy, wispy blobs were so high up there in the sky.
Different cultures have had many different stories about the origin and purpose of clouds. Many saw them as the domain for gods, spirits, or dragons, and believed they served as a means of divine communication.
The ancient Norse had one of the more interesting, and graphic, myths to explain the origin of clouds. They believed the heavens and earth were formed from the body of a great giant named Ymir. The soil, they said, was his flesh, the oceans and rivers were his blood, rocks and mountains were his bones, and the trees were his hair. All of this lay beneath the dome of the sky, formed from Ymir's massive skull. And the clouds? They were the giant's brains, strewn across the inside of his skull.
Today, of course, we know that those fluffy shapes aren't a giant's brains, but aggregations of water vapor. The air contains countless microscopic water molecules formed when water – from lakes, rives, oceans, ponds, etc. – evaporates into the air. These molecules rise into the sky, where they eventually cool and condense into droplets. The droplets clump together as clouds. When the droplets become heavy enough, they fall as rain, replenishing bodies of water below so that the entire cycle can start over again.
Knowing that it's the clouds, themselves, that fall on us when it rains, aren't you glad they aren't made of brains?
From: Jaime McLeod of the Farmers' Almanac
Comments
Post a Comment