CHAT: Weather

Tristan McLeay scripsit:

> But that
> north wind and the sun story? Makes absolutely no sense here. If the north
> wind tried that, not only would the traveller have taken his jacket off,
> but it probably would've been blown away, along with anything else that
> wasn't attached to him. So yes: the wind-chill factor works both ways.
Of course it has to be called "South Wind and Sun" in the Southern
Hemisphere.  But Oz is too close to the equator, anyway; try South Georgia
or some such lovely place to appreciate the full dramatic impact of the
story.

Overall, the Southern Hemisphere is colder than the Northern, due to that
giant refrigerator at the South Pole.

> One you don't like is the record for the warmest overnight
> low: I think this is somewhere in the vecinity of 27 degrees (real
> degrees, not fake ones based on absolute zero and body temperature and
> failing on both counts). Anyone here tried sleeping on a humid 27 degree
> Celsius night? (Without aircon: that's cheating. Though hot weather likes
> taking the power out, so I doubt you'd have it anyway.)
I spent just such a night on August 14/15 during the massive power outage
in the Northeastern U.S., and my neighborhood (Cooper Square) was one of
the last to be restored, at 9 PM Saturday.  When the power came back on,
my family and I were actually in a taxi on our way to a midtown hotel
having concluded that we couldn't stand another 30 degree 90% humidity night.
(It's warmer in Manhattan than official statistics indicate, due to the
large buildings: temperature measurements are made at airports and parks.)

We saw the lights come back on (with much cheering) and turned the taxi
around (but I paid the guy for the full trip: he deserved it for being
willing to work in those conditions at all.)

> (can rant about weather till he's blue in the face)
Like I said, it's no surprise that indigenous agriculture never arose in
Australia -- the climate is too unpredictable, and farmers would have
starved.

--
The Imperials are decadent, 300 pound   John Cowan <jcowan@...>
free-range chickens (except they have   http://www.reutershealth.com
teeth, arms instead of wings and        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
dinosaurlike tails).                        --Elyse Grasso