WEATHER FOLKLORE: "The winds of the daytime wrestle and fight, Longer and stronger than those of the night" APPLICABILITY: Lore works best in situations with mostly clear skies through most of the day and night. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION: Stability occurs when cool air is under warmer air. At night, the earth's surface cools off. This surface cooling promotes stability. The wind tends to slacken as low level stability occurs after sunset. In the daytime the sun warms the earth's surface. This causes warm air to be under cooler air. This situation is more unstable than at night. Just like a pot of boiling water, unstable air will mix and move. This creates stronger wind and wind gusts. PITFALLS: Fronts can frequently mess up the lore since a front can bring in strong wind day or night. The effect will not be as pronounced on cloudy days since daytime heating is minimized. |