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Category Archives: Meteorology
How do we acquire knowledge about the atmosphere?
How do we gain knowledge about the atmosphere? It is easy to assume that current, well-accepted scientific knowledge about anything was originally discovered by the grace of inspired geniuses armed with vastly superior intelligence than the average thinking person. In … Continue reading
Can subtle changes in sky color impact summer high temperatures?
There are spring and summer afternoons when very thin clouds appear overhead and turn the sky a bit white. These types of skies are physically interesting in at least two ways that are worthy of note.
First, the whiteness is a function of the fact that the cloud cover is a thin cirrus cloud. Cirrus clouds are composed of tiny ice crystals that scatter visible light without preference for any of the colors of the visible spectrum (the colors of the rainbow). This particular property is shared by snowflakes as well as by haze droplets. Individual snowflakes look clear but even a small collection of them is white since all of the light that hits the collection of snowflakes is scattered in all directions equally. The same is true of haze droplets which are most common in the summertime in southern Wisconsin. Continue reading
Category: Meteorology, Phenomena
Comments Off on Can subtle changes in sky color impact summer high temperatures?
Comments Off on Can subtle changes in sky color impact summer high temperatures?
Why are there April showers?
As we head into the second half of April, recent weather has reminded us all of the old saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” The question, of course, is why does April bring the showers? First of all, is it … Continue reading
Is water always present in the atmosphere?
Evidence of the presence of water in our atmosphere is ubiquitous. Water occurs in the Earth’s atmosphere in all three of its phases — solid (snow and ice), liquid (rain and dew) and gas (invisible water vapor).
As we begin to emerge from winter and enter spring, we may begin to see more dew on the ground and on the windshields of cars in the morning. The air nearly always holds some amount of water vapor. Dew is liquid water that condenses overnight onto objects when the air that contains the water vapor cools to a sufficiently low temperature. Continue reading
Why was part of the sky green on Tuesday night?
Why was part of the sky green on Tuesday night? Continue reading
