The Wonder of Weather

This being January 2, 2024, it was just announced, on the news radio station, that December, 2023, was the warmest December on record in Olympia.  No surprise, really, since Olympia has been setting “heat” records for the last five years.

Relax, this is not a diatribe on climate change. This is, however, a quick primer on weather.

Fact #1, a fact which amazed me when I was younger: All weather in the world originates from the Equator.

I will let that digest for a moment.  However, I will share one tiny piece of scientific knowledge with you before we continue: warm air rises, cold air sinks.

Okay, let’s continue.  I’m going to keep this at a very elementary level, not because I think you are stupid, because I certainly do not; rather it is because this is a lot to digest if you know nothing about it, so it’s best to keep this pretty basic.

At the Equator, huge masses of warm air rise into the atmosphere.  That warm air moves automatically towards the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere, and towards the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere.  At the same time as that is happening, the Earth is revolving, so that rising warm air in the Northern Hemisphere moves northeast, and in the Southern Hemisphere the air moves southeast.

Eventually, that warm air will cool as it reaches certain heights, and cool air falls, so at about 30 degrees, north and south, that warm air comes back towards the ground.  Reaching “ground level,” it warms again and consequently rises again.

This constant flow of air masses, combined with whatever moisture is in the air in any particular area, causes clouds and sometimes rain/snow/sleet/hail.

The moisture is a product of the water cycle, which is a whole other conversation, but let’s lay down the basics, that water molecules rise into the air from vegetation (Brazilian Rainforest) and bodies of water (much more complicated than that).

Those are the basics. Please don’t write to me and say there is a lot more to that, because my response will be DUH!

Now let’s jump to my favorite principle, The Butterfly Effect.  It goes something like this: all energy in our world is connected; there is a constant flowing of energy around the globe, so that, simply stated, every weather pattern affects other weather patterns, and every tree adds to the water cycle, just as every cut tree detracts from the water cycle, and then toss in other human activities and, well, what we are witnessing when we wake up in the morning is a product of a whole jumbled mess of factors . . . The Butterfly Effect.

Bottom line is this: It all amazes me.  No, I am not going to get on a soapbox and spout rhetoric about climate change. I am simply stating that it is undeniable that actions have consequences, and weather/climate is pretty damned amazing.

Class is dismissed.