Shark Week and Sling Psychrometer

Anyone else watching Shark Week? I was on my honeymoon last year and couldn't enjoy the wonder of the monsters. It is quite amazing how playful sharks are, given the right circumstances. I must admit that Shark Week is a great way to come down to reality after the Olympics because I was TOTALLY addicted to the games.

I was outside working on my weather station yesterday when my neighbor came over with a gift. His dad was in the military and he did weather observations. He gave me his dad's sling psychrometer. It has two thermometers, one with a sock on it that you wet and then you spin it around for a minute. The temperature will drop due to the evaporation and you will get the "wet bulb temperature." This is what the temperature would drop to if you had 100% relative humidity. Evaporation causes temperatures to drop so if you evaporated everything possible based on your pressure and dry air temperature then it would cool off to the wet bulb temperature. The drier the air the more the temperature will drop. The wetter the air the less the temperature will drop. Kinda, kinda, like when a thunderstorm rolls in and it cools off the air. (Granted there is more going on there like pulling down cooler air from the upper atmosphere, but the evaporation of the falling precip will help cool the air...evaporative cooling) Anyway, it is a total nerd weather instrument. It contains mercury so I will treat it with a high amount of care especially since it is so old. My neighbor said it would likely get broke at his house and he wanted me to have it...super nice.

Get ready for a beautiful day! After a little morning light fog, the sun will be sticking around with a few clouds as we climb into the lower 80's. Beautiful and mild today followed by temps heating up into the upper 80's tomorrow. Storms roll in Thursday night and they will be here for early Friday. That will cool us off into the mid-lower 70's for highs this weekend and drier as well. We warm up again next week with highs near 80, but no decent chance for rain, after tomorrow night, for the next seven days. Enjoy today and have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael