Improving Weather and Climate Predictions by Training of Supermodels

The authors of this weather-and-climate study did not resist the allure of shiny words: “Improving Weather and Climate Predictions by Training of Supermodels,” Francine Schevenhoven, Frank Selten, Alberto Carrassi, and Noel Keenlyside, Earth System Dynamics, epub 2019. (Thanks to Tom Gill for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the University of Bergen, Norway, […]

Beach study suggests tourists like good weather

Do not assume that tourists prefer good weather when they visit a beach. A study published in the International Journal of Biometeorology in 2013 challenges that easy-to-make assumption. The researchers gathered evidence – rather than relying on mere guesses and assumptions – as to what kind of weather brings beachgoers to the beach. Here is […]

Phantosmia as and in a weather forecaster, reportedly

Phantosmia — smelly hallucinations — and the weather unite, at long last, as subjects of a science report: “Phantosmia as a Meteorological Forecaster,” S. R. Aiello and A.R. Hirsch [pictured here], International Journal of Biometeorology, March 2013. the authors, at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor and the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in […]

Waiters’ tips and the weather: Analysis of a possible connection

Do waiters and waitresses get better tips on sunny days? In 1979, a groundbreaking experiment by professor Michael Cunningham (currently at the University of Louisville)  suggested the answer might be ‘Yes’.  (reference : Weather, mood, and helping behavior: Quasi experiments with the sunshine Samaritan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 11, pp. 1947-1956.) But […]

More Weekend Rains, But Fewer Tornados & Hailstorms

In 1998 David M. Schultz [pictured here], then at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman, Oklahoma, USA (and now at the University of Manchester, UK)  published an article called “Does It Rain More Often on Weekends?” (Annals of Improbable Research, vol. 4, no. 2) . Schultz concluded that: there is perhaps some validity to the hypothesis that certain […]

Goldilocks weather

Does the weather affect people’s happiness? If so, how? Two researchers, professor Katrin Rehdanz from the Centre for Marine and Climate Research, Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany (now at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel) and professor David Maddison from the Department of Economics, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark (now at the University of Birmingham, UK) co-authored the […]