2008.02.28 Meteorology: Weather You Like It or Not! - by Paul Nicholson

Preview:

On Feb 28, normally well known only because it is the last of a scrawny month, we will honor February's ambition to become a full-grown month by talking about the weather but, of course, without doing anything about it. Paul Nicholson is going to present a talk about meteorology. But what the devil does weather have to do with studying meteors? We don't want the audience to embarrass our guest speaker by seeming ignorant so we will tell you. The word meteorology means study of things that are high in the sky. Get it? OK. Nothing to do with stoned pilots. So this could pertain to the H Bomb-like "event" over Tunguska, Siberia in 1908, which terrified anyone who was lucky enough to live through it. Or it might pertain to the iridium-laden gift from the gods that came very special delivery about 65 million years ago. It was a gift because with all those brutish dinosaurs out of the way our little mouse like ancestors got to grow up to be brutish homo sapiens. These happenings would be like the study of the effects of monster volcanoes that caused such serious air pollution the earth warmed up dramatically. Or chilled the planet so most things died off. Take your pick.

But the word meteorology has come to be restricted to the comings and goings of air masses and their accompanying effects of air pressure and humidity. When Pinatubo in the Philippines blew her stack a few years ago, it cooled our atmosphere worldwide about .5 degrees C. Enough to affect many activities favored by Homo sapiens. Think food. When all airlines were grounded in the U.S. after 9-11 the skies, clear of airline vapor trails, caused our climate to warm up for a few days. Weather becomes more real to the average Bay Area Denizen if one takes advantage of the hills around the bay to watch the majestic movements of fog and other clouds as all this moisture pours in the Golden Gate. This is courtesy of the interaction of the Pacific High and the Coriolis Force, which Paul will tell us all about on Thursday.