#MEwx Another useful weather proverb

“When pipes smell stronger, it’s going to rain.”

To understand this proverb, we need to go to the molecular level. In dry air, aromatic or “smell” molecules (those that carry scent to our noses) are “naked” — they are floating around in the air on their own. In moist, humid air, water molecules attach to the aromatic molecules, and the scent becomes hydrated. This allows those smell molecules to better attach themselves to the moist surfaces of your nose, which makes their particular scent stronger.

When the air is moist like this, humidity is increasing, making rain more likely. So if your tobacco pipe has a stronger smell than usual, you might predict that poor weather is on its way. The same effect can be noted with lovely-smelling flowers (“Flowers smell best just before a rain”) and also offending manure fields and ponds (“Manure smells stronger before a rain” and “When ditches and ponds offend the nose, Look for rains and stormy blows”).