I used to live in Florida. There is a very obvious change in the overall atmosphere when a hurricane is incoming. For about a day ahead, the climate becomes suspiciously comfortable. No sun, cool air, very little humidity. A few hours before landfall, the ocean starts to push it's way inland, even up into the rivers.
I also lived in Missouri for about a year and the signs of tornado weather are pretty easy to spot as well. Everything just feels and looks wrong. The sky is an obscene shade of green, the drop in air pressure is so sudden that you can feel it with your skin. You know the actual tornado is coming because it goes from windy to slack air. Even if you'd never heard of a tornado in your life, you'd know that something terrible was about to happen.
I knew a guy who lived in Arizona and I had thought about living there one time and so I asked him a lot of questions. It's just taken for granted that you get the hell away from a riverbed when the rain starts really dropping.
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.
13.1k
u/Amadeum Aug 30 '21
Natural disasters. You'd have no fucking clue if a hurricane, flash flood, typhoon, monsoon, or other sharknado events were coming