Weather daily interest-then & now

Maybe my daily interest in weather is just a reflection of being a regular cyclist and living a car-free life where one is more exposed to the elements when taking transit, walking. 'Cause I had this ongoing interest in daily weather forecasts even many years before I returned to cycling. Even as a teenager, I wanted to know the weather forecast for the next day. Must come from also having grown up in a region where there are contrasting differences in temp., etc. among the 4 seasons? Or maybe I needed to know if I had to shovel the snow, chop the ice. (Do kids /teens do that anymore?)

Even during good weather seasons, always I want to know the weather.
Not all the time, but I do readjust some activities if the weather is particularily foul. And I don't even garden. :) And it isn't just readjusting cycling time length/route.

I know exactly what you mean-- my morning starts out with putting out the dog, feeding the cats, starting the coffee, then turning on the weather channel. Right now, it's the main reason I haven't ditched the tv!

I'm a weather junkie. There is something about growing up with my mom, who was a Boy Scouts den mother...the idea of "be prepared" was imprinted on me at an early age. (We never run out of anything in my house, especially toilet paper. My mother was NOT like that, by the way.) I just don't feel right if I don't know if I'll need a jacket or an umbrella or a bottle of water.

I live where the weather is very unstable during certain times of the year. (Tornadoes, etc.) I want to know ahead of time!

One of my very good friends just looks outside when she occasionally thinks to check the weather before she leaves the house, and then just "makes do" when she doesn't have a jacket and it's chilly. I admire her make-do attitude, but I just can't emulate it.

Karen

I feel unprepared if I haven't checked the hourly weather graph to know whether the wind's going to be changing direction or speed. :rolleyes:

Did I mention I'm a geek?

Local weather is the first thing I check in the morning and last thing before bed at night. Then again, in MN our weather can change drastically in a matter of hours and we sometimes see the extremes of either end so lots of folks here are weather junkies.

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

One of my very good friends just looks outside when she occasionally thinks to check the weather before she leaves the house, and then just "makes do" when she doesn't have a jacket and it's chilly. I admire her make-do attitude, but I just can't emulate it.

Karen

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And there are some people here who feel comfortable enough not to bring an umbrella along even though the sky and forecast clearly looks like rain. Or some people in Toronto, who don't even wear boots when there is sufficient snow. If possible, I like to be prepared to be somewhat dry/warm. Since moving to Vancouver, I do pay attention to weather forecast for need or not for a jacket-- the summers here to me, still have a Pacific cool edge despite long-time Vancouverites complaining about high heat in summer...when our summer temp. really reach at most 80-85 degrees F and that's not every single summer day. Humidex doesn't even compare to central Canada.

I always check. I use two internet weather reports--accuweather and a Chilean service. They never agree, so I pick the least favorable. I also generally assume that any predictions of rain are just wishful thinking.

I only check by looking outside: what weather is hovering over the water, the mountains? Is there ice on the bird bath or not? Do I need a fire this morning or not?

But, several years ago I had a job where it was my duty to check and record the rainfall every day. It was an area that could get a LOT of measurable rainfall. For awhile, I got very obsessed with it, and really enjoyed the measuring. My family did not really understand why I thought rainfall measurers were such a fun gift at Christmas! :rolleyes:

I usually check by looking outside, too, but I live where it doesn't rain at all for 6 months at a time:)
What will be will be, the future's not our to see is my motto with forecasts(apologies to Doris Day)

Methinks there are different reasons in different geographic regions where I've lived where certain local factors and natural environment might up the ante of locals' daily interest in local weather.

Living inland away from major water bodies and in a smaller city, people obsessed more the weather forecast during winter for possible storm, ice and certain summer days that might cause water bans. We never worried about smog alerts because it was a small city.

Then living in Toronto which is along Lake Ontario, was the additional wildcard of the lake causing different weather patterns in one area of city vs. another on same day, same hr. Plus being big city inland, higher probability of smog.

Now living in Vancouver area, same situation is similar to Toronto, different weather is one area vs. another area...20 kms. away. But the added factors of local mountains around us with hiking, skiing and snowboarding routes (where it is possible for novices, which is many of us, to get lost) plus ocean does (or should) force resident /visitor to be aware of sudden weather changes or...just being unprepared if you get lost in the bush. Might be awhile before the rescue team gets to you.

I've known people who went for a 3 hr. hike in the local mtns. here but it stretched out into a 9 hr. hike after taking just a few turns..

My friends call me the weather person. I've always been interested, but the interest is greater now, since I am looking for things like, can I go cycling, what's the wind?, rain predictions, temperature going up for x country ski conditions. I listen to the TV news (one local station is much more accurate than the others) and check on line.
My DH is really obsessed with weather. When we lived in AZ (being hardly any "weather" to speak of) he once took a video of the rain! He could smell a dust storm coming an hour before it arrived.
Living in New England, you have to be interested, because the weather is so varied. That's why I love it.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

My DH is really obsessed with weather. When we lived in AZ (being hardly any "weather" to speak of) he once took a video of the rain! He could smell a dust storm coming an hour before it arrived.

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What is the "smell" of an oncoming dust storm?

I know what the smell of an oncoming rain, especially thunder/lightning storm is.....from my Ontario memories. But here in Vancouver lightning/thunder storms are very rare....when it happens it makes front page news.

And looking out our home window to assess weather doesn't work when it's foggy here....we live far up in the sky that when fog blankets below but the sun could be burning bright at our sky-high suite level. Deceptive.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

My DH is really obsessed with weather. When we lived in AZ (being hardly any "weather" to speak of) he once took a video of the rain! He could smell a dust storm coming an hour before it arrived.
Living in New England, you have to be interested, because the weather is so varied. That's why I love it.

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DBF's from Mesa. I tease him about it: "Are you whining about the weather again? I guess you don't get a chance to do it at home, because you get either hot and sunny, or hotter and sunny. Is a cloud a major cause for concern there?" :p

Here, you get a random day in January where it'll hit 60, or a week of rain
(or two...). It's supposed to snow this weekend. You kind of have to keep an eye on the weather. I've just started carrying an umbrella in my backpack.

The smell of a dust storm is kind of like the smell of an approaching thunderstorm, but I can't really explain the rest.
Owlie, it does get colder than 60 in the valley in the winter. Like down to about 40 or even 30's at night. It might be 65-75 during the day.
But, most of the year (April- September, or October) it is either hot or hotter.
Yea, stick your head in the oven at 350 and you'll feel it...

I really think it's regional (speaking from having lived in 4 distinct weather situations).

When I lived in New England - everyone talked about the weather all the time. I always checked multiple sources every day (this was predominantly before the internet, too). It was a constant topic of conversation for everyone, but in New England, the weather is constantly changing. Seasons, daily, even hourly.

Then I moved to FL. No one talked about the weather unless there was a hurricane approaching and then that's ALL anyone talked about. But, in FL, the weather barely changed for 9 months of the year (at least, where I lived)....it was 85F, humid and it rained/thunderstormed every single afternoon. In the 'winter' it was dry and sunny every day with an occasional chilly crisp day. Not much to talk about, I guess.

Then I moved to NC where the weather changed a lot again. It was a constant topic of conversation but not quite as much as it was in New England. Interestingly enough, where I was in NC, people rarely complained about the weather - usually they were happy about it no matter what it was doing outside. Not sure why.

Lastly, now in the PNW - I notice that people don't even mention the weather for most of the year. They pretty much just ignore it and go about their day. I think it only really gets noticed in the last spring when it starts to dry out a little and in the mid-fall when it starts to rain again. I will say that people were pretty weather excited last winter when we got all that snow, but apparently that was a total freaky experience as they haven't had that much snow here in decades. For me, I don't bother looking at the forecast unless I've got something planned. What it's doing outside doesn't really affect my day, so I don't care. Of course, that's partly related to my lifestyle now and has less to do with the actual weather patterns.

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Originally Posted by GLC1968

Lastly, now in the PNW - I notice that people don't even mention the weather for most of the year. They pretty much just ignore it and go about their day. I think it only really gets noticed in the last spring when it starts to dry out a little and in the mid-fall when it starts to rain again. I will say that people were pretty weather excited last winter when we got all that snow, but apparently that was a total freaky experience as they haven't had that much snow here in decades.

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Maybe you hang out with happy people...when rainy season comes around, seems lI've heard enough weather conversations here. Even when it's fantastically sunny and balmy, like it was nearly all this summer here, most people that I knew seemed to remark on it happily.

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Originally Posted by shootingstar

Maybe you hang out with happy people...when rainy season comes around, seems lI've heard enough weather conversations here. Even when it's fantastically sunny and balmy, like it was nearly all this summer here, most people that I knew seemed to remark on it happily.

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Oh, I will say that they were certainly moaning about the heat this summer when it hit 100+ for like 4 days in a row. I'd forgotten about that (or blocked it out!).