Weather Predictions

The weather on Wednesday was something that I am used to, but not this late in the year. It was cold, it was wet, and it was rainy. I expected the wind—that just comes with West Texas. I just wasn’t prepared for how cold it was on the week after spring break.

Our assignment last week was to predict the weather for the following few days based on what we knew about the weather. Dr T told us that we tend to have sinus pressure issues when the weather is changing, like going from a low to a high-pressure system. Low pressure is bad weather; high pressure is good. So, if my nose doesn’t find itself equal to the outside world, it means that the weather is going to be getting better! It’s the same idea as a water barometer, like the ones my grandparents have on their back porch. If the air pressure is falling, indicating impending bad weather, the water in the spout rises (and sometimes spills over, just like the rain does! Sometimes childish devices are the best way to remember things).

So my nose was stuffy, which meant either I had a cold, or the weather would be changing for the better. My prediction was also helped by the fact that Tuesday was already a nicer day than Monday.

We observed cirrocumulus clouds in the sky that day, which have an appearance like fish scales. Since they weren’t cumulonimbus clouds, the large thunderhead clouds, they didn’t signify bad weather. According to Wikipedia, cirrocumulus clouds are formed high up in the atmosphere, and usually denote a simple change in the weather, not necessarily for better or worse. It also says, though, that they can be the remnants of a thunderstorm, like the storm we had in the days preceding class.

Good weather means clearer skies, warmer temperatures, and lower winds because there are fewer clouds in the sky to reflect back the heat and cause air movement. This makes the daytime skies warm, while at the same time, the lack of clouds allows the heat to dissipate at night. This means that the highs and lows are more extreme than they would be if it were cloudy; this is why in the winter, the temperatures are much less variable. The clouds are gone because the water in the air is more soluble in warm air, and doesn’t precipitate out as easily as it would in cold air.

The weather changed like I thought, and hoped, it would! It got clearer, and gradually got warmer during the daytime. Today, the forecast even said that it was supposed to get up to ninety—I am so glad. I love being warm and toasty. That just means, though, that I need to remember my sunscreen every single day, and not forget anywhere. There’s always somewhere I forget, like my eyelids or my ears or my part. Somewhere always winds up pink, usually right before some sort of photo opportunity (or right before an interview for my summer internship! Oops). That’s a shame, because I honestly like the smell of sunscreen. It makes me think of plastic pool toys and chlorine and that smell your skin puts off just because you’ve been out in the sun. That’s the smell of spring and summer to me, more than the smell of fresh-cut grass or flowers.