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2007/02/28

Weekend Weather Proven True

A suspicion that haunted every hard working person (and photographers) for a long time has just been proven true: According to this (German) Spiegel article, the weather is reasonably worse on weekends than on weekdays. At least, that discovery is the result of a study conducted by two meteorologists from the university and science center in Karlsruhe.

According to the article (you can read a short abstract of the study in English here), this weather cycle is caused by man-made emissions from factories and cars, which is higher during the week than on weekends. Exhaust gases and aerosols accumulate in the atmosphere, forming clouds and accumulating water. By the end of the week and on Saturday, the cloud cover has reached its most dense state, and decreases slowly until Tuesday. Thus, the amount of rain is highest on Saturdays, while Tuesday is the day with the most sunny weather. The temperature difference between Wednesday and Saturday is 0.2 degrees Celsius. Doesn't sound much? Seem like it's enough anyway. Especially considering that this means that humanity is not just influencing climate on a global scale, but also locally and in much shorter time periods.

But also, think about this: The inversion of this argument would of course be that by reducing the amount of emissions, the weather on the weekend would effectively get better. Another good reason to Stop Global Warming.


Comments

Ms. Dictter
– 2007-03-01 00:14:21

Mmmhhh! It sounds that in Germany the weather gets worse during the weekends as it is over here. The problem where I live, is that this small town is over populating and the pollution (the smog comes from the overly traffic jam during weekends) makes the weather even worser (that's why I get sick a lot). At least, every other day we have storms and blizzards, suddenly the sun comes out, but it is not normal to have this kind of weather by the end of February.

The people blame "El Niņo" but I agree with you, GLOBAL WARMING is fucking up the ecosystem, the cars and their stupid emissions. I think we all should use the bus, the Metro (I just love that word) or bicycles :-)

– 2007-03-02 20:44:28

Like I mentioned at some other place and time, I am a big enthusiast of Metro, Subway and U-Bahn. I think it's a great way to get around and meet interesting people. Meeting as in observing that is. There's something special in riding the trains that no car can give you. You actually get an impression of the people around you. You don't get that behind the wheel. It can tell you a lot about the place you live in and abou tother people's lives as well. Of course, there are also the better ecological values of mass transit. We should all use public transportation more often.

Oh, and of course, car-free weekend are a good idea as well, as proposed by someone right now in Germany. Keep 'em coming!

– 2007-03-03 01:47:48

Unfortunately, we don't have subways in Logan, and in SLC we have trolleys. The bus is for down-town purposes. I liked to ride in the bus or subway, it was cool and I miss it so much, that I would love to move to London, just for that purpose :-D


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