Snowing, breezy and why cookies crumble

Good morning Augusta

Winter Storm warning remains in effect, and they aren’t kidding around.  It’s slimey driving so slow down.

This morning we have Snow giving way to light freezing rain this afternoon. High 31 ºF. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 100%. Snow and ice accumulating 3 to 5 inches. 

Tonight we’ll have partly cloudy skies with a low near 25ºF. Winds will be from the W at 10 to 20 mph.

The readings from my weather instruments in the North field are:

Humidity is 96%, the dew point is 23ºF, outside it’s -4.6ºC and 23.8ºF.

The wind direction is North Northwest between 3.4 MPH and  4.7 MPH, generating a wind chill of 23.8ºF.

The Barometric pressure is 30.04 / HPA 1017.2 and falling with a weather graphic indicating snow, and they sure have it right.

The UV rating is 0.0 out of 16, Sunrise is at 7:06 a.m. Sunset is 4:00 P.M. Moon rise is at 3:21 p.m., Moon set is 5:01 p.m. and the moon phase is waxing gibbous.  

The RAW METAR reading from the airport in Augusta, Maine is:

METAR KAUG 121153Z AUTO 03006KT 1/2SM SN FZFG VV008 M04/M05 A3002 RMK AO2 SLP170 P0007 60023 70023 T10441050 11044 21072 58

Visibility is 0.5 miles / 0.8 Kilometers with Low, very weighty cloud cover.

We have received roughly 3 inches of snow overnight so far and it isn’

T over by any stretch.

As a child, when mother would bake fresh cookies, I conned my way into the perpetual “right” to eat ALL of the cookies that came out broken.  My wife has come to understand that this “right” got carried over into our marriage. 

Below is the scientific reason why.  See?  I’m validated!

The following article is lifted whole-cloth from the Farmer’s Almanac.

   THE WAY THE COOKIE CRUMBLES

Ever heard the expression, “That’s the way the cookie crumbles?” What does this mean? How does the cookie crumble?

About a year ago, Qasin Saleem, a doctoral student at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom used a sophisticated digital-image processing system to study some freshly baked cookies while they were cooling.

He and his colleagues observed cracks appearing on them only a few minutes after they were removed from the oven. After an additional observation period, they concluded that during this cooling process, moisture drifts from the center of the cookie, building stress toward the outside while, indeed, the center actually shrinks. This results in the formation of tiny cracks, which often cause cookies to crumble during handling and shipment.

(Ross Note:  How do I get a job doing this!?)

 

And here’s what we want to know …

•           Low-fat, low-sugar cookies fared the worst, crumbling the most.

•           Sugary, high-fat (more delicious) varieties were far less likely to crumble.

It figures that the sugary, high-fat cookies are the ones that stick around (in every way)! Guess these are the ones you’ll want to ship to us at Christmas.

So … well … that seems to be the way the cookie crumbles.

SOURCE: The 2005 Old Farmer's Almanac