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Tag: rain

  • Why Do People Love the Smell of Rain?

    Why Do People Love the Smell of Rain?

  • Most Useful Clouds to Predict the Weather

    Most Useful Clouds to Predict the Weather

    Humans have been able to accurately forecast the weather by studying natural patterns for thousands of years. Clouds, in particular, may provide useful information about the near-term weather. Where do you think the day’s weather will stand? Take a look at the sky and make your own forecast.


    Listed below are five different classes of clouds, each with its own significance.

    The Formation of the Clouds

    The accuracy of weather predictions has risen dramatically in recent decades. However, mankind has been able to foretell the weather down to the hour by studying cloud patterns for thousands of years. Clouds, depending on their make-up, might be white, gray, thick, or thin.

    The transformation of water vapor into a liquid state results in the formation of clouds.


    Clouds are formed when warm air that is already saturated with water cools, causing some of the water to condense into droplets. When air travels upward, it cools down because of the decrease in temperature.

    Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water or ice crystals suspended in the air. It’s clear that these particles are always in transit. According to scientists, a 1 km3 cumulus cloud may weigh up to 1,000,000 tons.

    Cumulus

    Hazy clouds are called cumulus clouds

    Cumulus cloud
    Hazy clouds are called cumulus clouds. Image: GoldenMedows,, CC BY-SA 3.0

    These clouds have the distinct appearance of cotton due to their smooth surfaces. Both of their flat bases are on the same horizontal plane. With the sun shining on them, they take on a dazzlingly white color. Not only do they not foretell an impending rain, but they are also not even somewhat interesting.

    Scientists classify cumulus clouds into three categories:

    • Cumulus humilis, which is broad and short in height;
    • Cumulus mediocris, which has a moderate height but few protuberances;
    • Cumulus congestus, which is tall and bushy. This is the last phase of cumulus development preceding the formation of cumulonimbus.

    Cumulonimbus

    Thunderstorms can be brought on by the Cumulonimbus cloud

    Cumulonimbus cloud
    Cumulonimbus incus.

    It shouldn’t rain as long as the cumulus clouds stay tiny, but if they keep getting bigger and higher in the sky, that’s a terrible omen.


    Storm clouds that are capable of producing hail are called cumulonimbus.

    Cirrus

    High in the sky, cirrus clouds float about

    Cirrus cloud
    High in the sky, cirrus clouds float about. Image: Cirrus clouds2, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Very high in the atmosphere, between 3.5 and 7 miles (6 and 12 kilometers), cirrus forms as thin, white threads. The arrival of a warm front that might bring rain within 12 hours is signaled by cirrus clouds that get lower and thicker as time passes.

    Stratus

    These stratus clouds, like the Stratus nebulosus, are low and gray

    Stratus cloud
    These stratus clouds, like the Stratus nebulosus, are low and gray.

    Grey stratus clouds often hover fewer than 1650 feet (500 meters) above the earth. Hilltops and high-rises are readily hidden from view. Stratus clouds are a continuous blanket that might provide a little rain. If they make it to the ground, they’ll be like a dense fog.

    Lenticular clouds

    Lenticular clouds are often observed near peaks

    best clouds to predict the weather Lenticular clouds
    Lenticular clouds are often observed near peaks, such as here in Japan near the Mount Fuji.

    A lenticular cloud’s shape has nothing to do with the weather’s trajectory. Their distinctive form recalls a lens or possibly a UFO. You may often see these clouds in the vicinity of mountain peaks. They owe their form to the presence of wind at high altitudes.

  • Cloudless Rain: How Come It Sometimes Rains With Clear Sky and No Clouds?

    Cloudless Rain: How Come It Sometimes Rains With Clear Sky and No Clouds?

  • Are No Two Snowflakes Really Alike?

    Are No Two Snowflakes Really Alike?

    A single snowflake drifts gently to the ground, where it may join the others of its kind. One snowflake follows another, and then a few million more, until the whole rooftop is blanketed in white. Snowflakes may fall from the sky by the billions, yet no two snow crystals are ever the same, as the old saying goes. In the same way that every person is different, each of these objects is also unique. But how accurate is that?

    It’s indeed exceedingly rare that any two complicated snow crystals would look precisely the same. It’s so improbable that you probably wouldn’t even find carbon duplicates if you looked at every crystal ever produced. That is the essence of this query. It depends on what you mean by the “same” and what you mean by the term “snow crystal.” Because the matter is really a lot more complicated than that.

    When does a snowflake form?

    snowflake
    An ordinary hexagonal dendrite.

    It is actually possible for two snow crystals made of just a few water molecules to be identical. There, the crystals are still too small to be seen with the naked eye or with a microscope.

    If more water molecules bind to one of the two mini-crystals, causing them to grow bigger as they fall from the cloud to Earth, the likelihood is that one of the crystals will grow at a different rate than the other ones. Changing the environment just a little bit—for instance, by altering the temperature or the humidity—can produce a snowflake with whole new characteristics.

    Also, different crystals form even if kept under the exact same circumstances. This is because the atoms never align with perfect regularity, which means they are prone to producing differences.

    The development of a snowflake is to stock 10 items on a rack so that there are 10 possible positions for the first item, 9 for the second item, and 8 for the third item.

    There are more than a billion possible arrangements for only 10 items. And as the items on the rack expand, the total combinations climb infinitely. This is also true with snow crystals. When they are bigger, that is, when they gather more atoms, it is less probable that two identical forms will be generated.

    Do identical snow crystals exist?

    Snow crystals with many shapes
    All snowflakes have the familiar hexagonal symmetry shown in these 1902 photos. (Image: Wilson Bentley, “Monthly Weather Review” for 1902)

    Almost a century and a half ago, farmer Wilson Bentley (1865–1931) planted the idea that no two snow crystals are alike. In his lifetime, he examined innumerable snowflakes and took hundreds of photographs of these crystals under a microscope. When he examined snowflakes in 1922, he said, “Every crystal was a masterpiece of design, and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost.” It would seem that throughout his lifetime, Bentley never came across any two snowflakes that were the same.

    Nobody ventured to cast doubt on this plausible idea for quite some time. In the 1980s, Nancy Knight of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research released photos of two snow crystals that, under the microscope, appeared exactly the same. It seemed like a dogma had been debunked.

    The question is whether or not the likeness in appearance implies a likeness in character. Because an optical microscope can’t resolve the atomic detail. And if you go through a reasonable number of snow crystals, it’s not hard to envisage finding two that are indistinguishable under the microscope. Furthermore, identical snow crystals could be manufactured artificially, and although they may seem similar, they won’t be identical at the subatomic level.

  • Can Frogs Really Predict the Weather?

    Can Frogs Really Predict the Weather?

    Frogs are weather experts. Some frogs and toads, based on their croaking, egg-laying, and even skin color, are said to allow us to predict whether it will rain soon or not. But what is the truth behind the frogs’ purportedly preternatural weather forecasting abilities?

    Long ago in Switzerland, if you would put a tree frog in a jar half full of water and give it a little ladder to climb, it could forecast good weather by climbing the ladder and bad weather by descending back into the water. Even today, in Germany, a weatherman is referred to as a Wetterfrosch, which translates as “weather frog.”

    Tree frogs are known to climb trees in favorable weather and make an awful noise, croaking sweetly for hours on end, thus the frog weather prediction theory actually has some validity.

    Monitoring the Humidity

    Numerous accounts point out the daily behavioral changes in amphibians and some reptiles related to predicted weather. Some species, for instance, become more active just before it starts to rain, while others are more likely to make their distinctive croaking sounds. The weather probably has a lot to do with this shift in behavior.

    Frogs and toads are highly reliant on accurately monitoring the humidity or temperature of their surroundings. That’s because amphibians are ectothermic, meaning they don’t produce their own heat. So, their blood, muscles, and skin, along with the rest of their organs, are always at the same temperature as their surroundings.

    Exceptionally Sensitive to Moisture Levels

    Frogs’ skin is very porous because of the abundance of glands on its surface. Because of this, they suffer significant water loss due to evaporation. But frogs and toads have a more refined sense of moisture via their skin than people do. In the tropics, for example, certain frog species usually come out of the underbrush when the humidity rises in anticipation of rain.

    Finally, amphibians like frogs and toads produce their offspring in aquatic environments. Thus, in order to effectively reproduce, they have to predict when there will be adequate puddles and pools from rain in which their tadpoles may grow. This means that when the weather or temperature changes, frogs have to adjust their behavior accordingly.

    Climbing Tree Frog

    So why then do frogs choose to remain low when bad weather is approaching, yet climb up when conditions are favorable? There are no precise investigations of the topic available. However, there are two theories among frog scientists as to why this occurs: The tree frog, in contrast to most other frog species, enjoys vertical environments and bright sunlight. Male frogs, especially those still in their juvenile stages, spend most of the late summer sitting on bushy branches and leaves to soak up some rays.

    However, the accessibility of food is equally important. The same goes for tree frogs, who also utilize their perches to swoop down on prey. Insects like mosquitoes are sensitive to weather changes, something our ancestors accounted for in their agricultural guidelines. With less wind and more sunshine, insects may ride the warm updrafts to greater heights in their flights. They tend to linger on the ground if a severe wind and a drop in temperature are expected.

    It is unknown, however, whether tree frogs actively pursue prey higher or lower, or if they instead respond immediately to changes in the weather. One thing scientists can agree on is that frogs and toads frequently respond to a shift in the weather before humans do. And this, of course, has nothing to do with clairvoyance.