Fascinating Weather

March 25, 2010

Interview with Paul Yeager, author of the book Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities

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Mike Carruthers:
Weather can be fascinating there are so many facts, legends and misconceptions about the weather.

Paul Yeager:
I think one of my favorite misconceptions, having been a forecaster for the West Coast  for many, many years is the myth that it always rains in Seattle.
 

Meteorologist Paul Yeager, author of the book Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities …

Much of their rain comes during a short period of time as it does along all of the West Coast. However the amount of rain that they receive during a year is less than what you receive in New York City, is less than Atlanta, less than Washington D.C.

Have you ever heard the old saying, “Cold is the night when the stars shine bright?”

That’s an old one that my uncle used to talk to me about, he was a farmer, and actually there is some indication that when the night is clear and the air is very dry those are the nights in which you can see the stars the best. Because there’s no haze associated with moisture, no haze associated with pollution and those are the nights that tend to be the coldest. There is some limit to its usefulness because it doesn’t forecast the actual temperature whether we’ll get to freezing or not.

And I didn’t know this but despite popular belief not every heavy snowstorm is a blizzard, in fact it doesn’t even have to snow to be a blizzard.

It seems as if we equate blizzards with the amount of snow, actually it’s the intensity of the storm. And a blizzard is defined as winds of 35 miles per hour and snow or blowing snow; it doesn’t even have to be snow falling from the sky, that reduces the visibility to under a quarter of a mile for 3 hours.