Learning about weather from a 12 year old.

I've never paid much attention to weather reports. Seriously, how often are they right? When I lived in Breckenridge the Denver TV stations were showing the entire state as clear with blue skies while it was dumping an inch an hour outside our window. And it's not like my wardrobe changes with the weather, so why pay attention?

Biking to work this Spring has changed all of that. April started off with a week of 80 degree temperatures and it looked like we were raging into Summer. Of course, we were skiing in VT that week. Since then the teps have bounced between freezing and hazy, hot and humid. Getting on the bike at 6:30 in the morning, I need to know what to wear.

So I've started checking the weather online in the mornings. Nothing in depth. I just search weather 12110 to check the temp and I'm off.

Yesterday morning Weather.com had the Latham weather as 32 degrees and 100 percent humidity. When I told Jimmy (our too smart for his own good 12 year old) he asked "What's the dew point?" I looked at him like he was from Mars and asked him why that would matter. Apparently if the dew point and the temperature are the same we're going to get percipitation. His words.

So back to weather.com and guess what. The dew point was also 32 degrees. Precipitation looked imminent. And a 32 degree, wet bike ride can be a little rough. I did what every weather man should do before he (or she? are their weather women? why not?)and looked out the window. Blue sky. Little whispy white clouds. Precipitation?

32 and sunny I can handle I jumped on my bike, headed to work and promptly ran into a giant, thick, white wall of fog. The Mohawk River was invisible. Rexford Bridge? Erased. Normally the GE R&D facility glows like a small city but yesterday it was gone. My ride to work largely follows the Mohawk and it was completely covered in a fog bank.

It made the ride almost surreal. I couldn't see any of the checkpoints that I normally pass- bridge, GE hill, 4 entry points to GE including the circle,Knolls, the ball fields at Blatnick Park, the old train station in Latham. Visiblity was brutal.

The precipitation came in the form of the tiny ice crystals that were forming on my clothes. 32 degrees.

It turns out that fog is actually a form of precipitation.



http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8f.html



Who knew? Apparently the 12 year olds.

I'm riding my bike 100 miles on July 11th to raise money for MS research. Having multiple sclerosis means that you may suddenly have blurry vision. Or that your memory will fail you for no apparent reason. Or that you may not always be able to walk, let alone ride a bike. The symptoms of MS are different, and devastating, for everyone - the only certainty is that it will affect yet another person every hour of every day.

Please support my ride by making a donation or joining my team!

http://bit.ly/100miles4ms