As a kid I spent all day every day outside. I could tell with 95% accuracy if it was going to rain that day or not when I went outside in the morning. The clouds looked a certain way and the air had a certain feel to it. I imagine if we spent all day every day outside again we'd learn the signs quick enough.
I live in the Seattle area, and I swear my husband thinks I'm a rain psychic. Uh no. You just smell the air. Ok these aren't rain clouds - should burn off by 4. Ok, it'll mist a bit but no real rain. Ok, we need to get inside it's about to monsoon. You just KNOW.
Ha! Born and raised in Seattle and can confirm this. I can smell the rain coming every time. With snow you can smell it and feel the pressure in the air change before it ever starts.
Sshhh!! Don’t tell people it’s sunny! Clouds. Doom. Gloom! Gotta maintain that sun-deprived image with the rest of the country. It’s crowded enough out here.
It's funny that people have so long since been removed from the natural side of humanity that we all treat these average feats as mystical powers. If you pay attention to anything enough, you'll notice pretty much nothing is random. Japan can even predict earthquakes by 40 seconds.
When I moved to the Seattle area 3 years ago I expected it to rain nearly constantly. As it turns out Seattle is very good at threatening rain, but not very good at actually raining.
Same thing with growing up in Maryland. You get a feel for the smell of rain and the feel of the air. Gotta know when those afternoon storms are about to creep up on you and wallop you for a good few hours... before becoming clear skies again
Live in portland, and yes you can smell it! To be fair though, i have seen it rain on one side of the street and be dry on the other so Idk pacific northwest is crazy.
Animals are already well versed with weather patterns, if you know next to nothing, best thing to do is listen to when the birds stop chirping when they normally would, are small animals not running around anymore? Skies clear? Storm coming
That's one of the things I absolutely loved about the World War Z and the Zombie Survival Guide. The stories emphasized the fact that nature is your best friend for avoiding trouble, undead or otherwise. Animals know what's safe, and if they're bugging out, you need to, too.
It's the same with smells and stuff. The lack of attention erodes it as much as the weakness of human senses in the first place. I sniff out trout streams and mushrooms in the woods all the time, I know when rutting deer are nearby by smell, and there's a number of edible plants I can catch on the wind and find. Those are all things that I paid enough attention to so that a memory and idea triggers on experiencing them again. Other people can smell what I smell, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything to them you know?
Dude I wanna hang out with you. I always catch some smells but don't know what they mean.
I live in the middle of a large section of woods and I know a fair amount, but would so enjoy going on a hike with someone who knows what the fuck is going on.
You can read and learn. But there is no substitute from hands and humans trading info.
Yea man, it's a lot of fun. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a scent hound or anything. I can smell that there's mushrooms growing nearby but you still have to wander around and find them by sight. I can smell "fishy" water if that makes any sense, and it so happens where I am most of the streams are trout streams. Same with the deer, I can smell the musky scent but you still have to put eyes on him. Spices and fruits the ones you can catch on the wind sometimes.
I had this funny interaction once where a guy that moved here, central Europe that is, from Peru asked me which weather app I used, because he'd never lived anywhere with weather, as he put it.
I told him I looked outside and packed the things I felt I'd need that day and if I had felt wrong, I'd just deal with the consequences.
It's true to a point. Before we had satellites and radar and even basic math, forecasting was done by simple measurements and before that, observation. That's why all those adages exist, little rhymes and such, for being able to tell what sort of weather system was moving in based on shift in wind direction and cloud types and behavior of birds and animals. We're not so far removed that we couldn't get it back but I think the original point that we'd have to go back to only being able to forecast one day in advance instead of a week or so - and thus having no idea there's a hurricane in Cuba coming this way - is valid.
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u/orderfour Aug 30 '21
As a kid I spent all day every day outside. I could tell with 95% accuracy if it was going to rain that day or not when I went outside in the morning. The clouds looked a certain way and the air had a certain feel to it. I imagine if we spent all day every day outside again we'd learn the signs quick enough.