#weather
Questions about “weather”.
19 articles
Why is a sun shower called a “fox’s wedding” in Japanese?
Under a blue sky, a few drops of rain come pattering down. Faced with that odd sight, people in Japan long ago somehow pictured a wedding of foxes.
How hot is lightning?
For the briefest instant, a single streak of light carves a path hotter than the Sun. And that deafening roar comes from the very same heat.
Is it true that no two snowflakes are alike?
“No two snowflakes are alike,” people say. But has anyone actually checked? Each flake, it turns out, carries a record of its journey through the sky.
Why are rainbows round?
A rainbow in the sky is always a half circle or a smaller arc. But that shape is only part of the picture. Where did the rest of the rainbow go?
Does air have weight?
You can’t see air or hold it in your hand. But if you gathered up all the air in the room you’re sitting in and put it on a scale, how far would the needle swing?
Where is the rainiest place in the world?
Where in the world can you never put your umbrella away? In one place, more than 10,000 millimeters of rain a year has shaped the way people live.
Why do autumn leaves turn red and yellow?
All summer the hills are a single shade of green; then autumn paints them red and gold. Both colors “turn,” but what happens backstage is entirely different.
How do tornadoes form?
A slender vortex reaches down from the sky to the ground. What conditions have to come together to create a tornado, the source of nature’s most violent winds?
Was the Sahara once green?
The Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert, is sand and rock as far as the eye can see. Yet beneath the sand and in the shelter of its rocks lie traces of a completely different landscape.
Why is the sky blue and the sunset red?
Blue by day, red at dusk. It is the same sunlight all along, so why does the sky change color with the time of day?
Why do pine cones open and close?
A pine cone brought home seems to clench shut on rainy days and spread open again on sunny ones. What’s more, it does this even though the cone is “dead.”
Why does static electricity give you a shock?
In winter, touching a doorknob or a car door becomes a little nerve-racking. That sudden sting is a tiny lightning bolt driven by thousands of volts.
How much does a cloud weigh?
Clouds look as light as cotton candy. If you could set one on a scale, how far would the needle swing? And why don’t clouds fall out of the sky?
Which is colder, the Arctic or the Antarctic?
Both are frozen worlds at the ends of the Earth. The two polar regions seem like twins, but what lies beneath their ice could hardly be more different.
When was the umbrella invented?
On a rainy day, an umbrella is indispensable. But trace its long history back far enough, and it turns out it wasn’t made for rain at all.
How far can dandelion seeds fly?
One puff of breath and a dandelion clock bursts into a cloud of tiny parachutes drifting skyward. Just how far do those little travelers go?
Can water stay liquid below 0°C?
Tap a bottle of water fresh from the freezer, and it turns to slush before your eyes. Behind this magic trick lies a surprising property of water.
Is there a lake where the lightning never stops?
Silent lightning flickers on the horizon hundreds, even thousands of times in a single night. In one place, nights like that add up to months of every year.
Where does the Japanese word “taifū” come from?
Typhoons strike Japan almost every year. But why is the Japanese word written with the character 台, meaning “stand” or “platform”? Follow a word on its long voyage back and forth across the seas.