Weekend Weather Proven True
2007/02/28
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 :-)
Tobias – 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!
Cathy – 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
