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Hi Weather Team,
My car pool was discussing how it seems that we get more bad weather on weekends than during the week. Someone hypothesized that it could be because of pollution building up in the atmosphere during the week from commuter driving, causing cloudy, rainy weather on the weekend. I don't think this is the reason but I have two questions: does historical data show more inclement weather on weekends them at other times and is so, do you know why that would be.
pollution? ;)-
Thanks,
Mike W.
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Great question and I'm so glad that everyone is discussing these topics. The more interest we gather in weathery type subjects the more research is done and we can get things figured out.
The deal with weekend weather, there's a few factors. One of them is that you really remember the weekend weather for sure. A lot of people make plans on the weekends or do yard work so when the weather isn't desireable, we really remember it, versus recalling bad weather during the week.
Here in Utah, we do at times get into these cycles where stormy weather can pass through every 7 days. So if one weekend is bad, it can end up having the following one not being so hot either.
The forces that steer our weather around like the Jet Stream are so high up that is unlikely that surface pollution would influence it.
As far as historical records, that would be one great project for a graduate student but I don't think any significant studies have been done. You'd also have to factor in that weekends move on the calendar each year while researching this topic.
Answered by KSL Meteorologists Dina Freedman, Keith Merrill and Mark Eubank.
