CDR: Re: Weather

[Ray Dillinger]

On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, Jim Choate wrote:

>
>No, it's because the continent of the US is larger and as a consequence
>the weather tends to be more violent. Got something to do with the size of
>the air masses and their ability to store energy. Review some good weather
>texts. [1]

???  What map of the world have you been looking at?  The old-world 
mainland is so big we call it two continents (Europe and Asia) even 
though it's one solid piece of land.  (plus some islands at the edges, 
like England, Ireland, and Japan). And Africa is just immense! 

I won't deny that by all accounts our weather (especially on the 
central plains states) is substantially more violent than european 
weather (cf. my earlier comments about wind dismantling houses on 
occasion where I used to live in Kansas) but it's not because the 
continent is bigger.  

I'd be more inclined to believe it's just particular circumstances; 
that chunk of america gets warm wet air off the Gulf of mexico and 
cold dry air from the arctic by way of canada, which is a pretty 
extreme mix.  Mountain ranges are in place that keep the air from 
getting mediated with anything before this extreme mix happens. The 
resulting weather is also extreme, natch.

>We have hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods, locust swarms (here in Texas
>every year they get so thick you can literaly sweep them with a broom),
>etc. at a much higher rate than Europe.

It's different in California.  The year after I moved out here they 
had a tornado in San Jose that pushed a car across a parking lot. It 
dented this guy's car, but it was drivable. I had to laugh at that, 
because when I heard "tornado" I was thinking of something completely 
different.  I watched this moron on the news, who was talking about 
how he'd stood right next to a large glass window in his home and 
watched it "suck the ducks right out of the duck pond"....  and the 
TV meteorologist called him "brave" for this.  I had to laugh, but 
I thought, "there really hasn't been much evolutionary pressure on 
humans here regarding weather, has there?"  We kansas transplants 
used to tape the weather forecasts here and send them back to our 
friends for comedic value.  

				Bear