Chuck Doswell has a very interesting list of his pet peeves and bothersome meteorology. Many of them are quite humorous and/or informative. I highly recommend reading the Doswell pet peeves: They are entertaining and quite thought provoking. His list is available at: http://www.cimms.ou.edu/~doswell/peeves/peeves.html I tried to think of some of my own pet peeves and bothersome meteorology. I have listed some of them below. If you have any of your own pet peeves that relate to meteorology, send them to me. 1. Isodrosotherm- The word is way too long. A 5-syllable word to describe dewpoint is just too long (although some words in meteorology are even longer). An isotherm only has 3 syllables. Instead of isodrosotherm; how about changing it to isodew, isomoist, dewpleths, hydrolines, or dewlines 2. Atmospheric disturbance- Phrase says nothing about the processes in the atmosphere which are causing the disturbance. Often, this term is used to refer to a region of precipitation or some type of low pressure. All in all, it is too general of a phrase. 3. Glaze- The word in meteorology means the same as freezing rain. It doesn't make sense how this word came to mean the same thing as freezing rain. When I think of glaze, I think of a "sugary" coating on a donut or a coating of honey on a muffin. I'm ready for sweets, not a popsicle! Let's save glaze for the bakery, pottery and glassware but not for freezing precipitation. By the way, why do they call the coating on a cake "icing" when it is not frozen? 4. Isn't it annoying to have to specify everything relative to the Northern Hemisphere when communicating with those is the Southern Hemisphere or people who always have the Southern Hemisphere in mind? Examples: lows spinning clockwise instead of counterclockwise, Coriolis deflection to the left instead of the right, earth spinning clockwise instead of counterclockwise, hurricanes spinning the other way, clockwise tornadogenesis, different star patterns, north facing structures receiving more sunlight, south being toward high latitudes instead of low latitudes. The toilet flushing the opposite direction is the MOST annoying (because it is not true). Gosh, at least the sun rises in the eastern half of the sky in both Hemispheres. 5. The word meteorology- Isn't it annoying when someone thinks a meteorologist studies meteors, the stars and planets (the heavens). It might be just a little more straight forward if the word was: weatherology. A climatologist studies climate. Shouldn't a person who studies weather be called a weatherologist? 6. The fact that there is negative vorticity advection within a region of positive vorticity (challenging to teach!), PVA and NVA are not the same as PV and NV (that A makes a HUGE difference) 7. The most annoying thing in meteorology of them all- Blowing a forecast |