The weekends are a part of the week that we look
forward to. The Thank Goodness It’s Friday phrase is one that must be almost as
common as good morning in many offices. Although we often pack the weekends
with activities, they are really a time that we should take it easy.
My attention was drawn by improbable.com to a
recent paper indicating that the forces of nature relax a little at weekends.
Rosenfeld and Bell checked the weather records for the summertimes on the eastern
States of the US from 1995 through 2009 (1). Their data indicated a weekly
variation in activity, which their statistics indicated was significant.
Summer storms releasing
hail and tornados tended to be a mid-week activity with an easing around the
weekends. It appears that we are the problem during the week. It’s not a
special dispensation for the weekends to allow more golf and cycling.
Once our weeks get under
way, the air pollution increases, generating a great volume of aerosols that
drift up into the atmosphere. The aerosol particles nucleate the water vapor in
the clouds and invigorate the active convective clouds. This in turn,
encourages hail formation and tornados.
At the weekends, we take it
easy, let the large diesel engines rest and do less polluting things. So the
weather cuts us some slack and doesn’t throw so much in the way of large
hailstones down on our heads.
As the authors note,
though, the pollution only modulates the activity and isn’t the cause, so it
will still pay to check the forecast before you toss your clubs in the trunk.
Golf ball size hail while you’re out on a golf course could be very confusing.
- D. Rosenfeld & T.L. Bell, J. Geophys. Res., 116, 14, (2011)
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