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by klyrs 1371 days ago
It's funny to me that people have unlearned the relationship between pressure and weather. I grew up in a house with a faux-antique barometer, and always took that for granted. Like reading an analog clock, this isn't knowledge that "kids these days" pick up. Which is still weird, because TV weather announcers always talk about the pressure when describing their weather forecasts. But of course, people want to know if their BBQ is going to be sunny, they don't want a lesson in physics.

https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/earth/make-your-own-weath...

3 comments

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there isn't much severe weather, but spent a few years in Atlanta in my 20's, where you get tornado warnings.

After about a year in Atlanta, I was able to predict a tornado siren going off about one or two minutes ahead of time nearly every time. All I know is that I'd be going about my business and, of out of nowhere, the air would feel different. I can't explain it any better than that, but it was such an obvious feeling to me and blew my mind having never been in that situation before.

Humans are much more animalistic than we want to admit. Our senses are insanely attuned to our surroundings, but modernity overwhelms them. Oh well, trade offs I guess.
Honestly though, a proper prediction with various inputs is more accurate than eyeballing a barometer, and aside from this particular type of migraine, why would anyone need to know the pressure during the normal course of one's day? (Assuming your work doesn't happen to use environmental pressure.)
> why would anyone need to know the pressure

Rising and falling pressures are a decent enough heuristic for weather behaviors in local areas.

We’ve even lost most of “looks like rain” - the average person a hundred years ago or so would have been able to relatively reliably predict the day’s weather in the morning.

Many of us can’t do that now, even if we do go outside.