Learning Corner

Anonymous (Jon) writes:

speaking of 40's, I'm drinking one right now, and the high life girl on the label wants to know
a) how the earthquakes in the south asian seas will affect our weather
b) why it's so blurdy warm at the end of december
c) why meteorologists don't denote when the low will be different from the "overnight" low, because, come on, seriously, doesn't it sometimes happen where it gets *WARMER* at night than it was during the day? I know we've been in it over the appoximate times of "lows" and "highs", but seriously. It was warmer out when I left the bookstore tonight than when I went in.
Tell me the why of that, blog!
The high-life lady thanks you.

The answers, in order, are:

a) they won't
b) so we can party!
c) most meteorologists are forecasting for upstanding members of society who are sleeping at night instead of drinking forties and reading blogs, and so don't care at what time during their slumbers the temperatures hit the actual low. Honestly, this is close to the truth. But also, on a night when a warm front passes (like the one when you wrote this) if you look at a detailed forecast they will usually mention that the low will occur around midnight (because it is technically the low for the next day) and that temperatures will rise through the morning. So although the night might be warmer than the previous day it will still be cooler than the next, and so they still give you a low. I hope that makes sense.