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Cloud Watching

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Looking west a few evenings ago

Thursday evening’s videos showed clouds to the east– the rain we’d had an hour or so earlier. This photo is the beginning of a little squall line that blessed us with an evening shower.

Years ago, I took up bird watching– even bought the National Audubon Society Field Guide. It told me that every year thousands of folks take up birding, and their first goal is “learning to identify the hundreds of species in their own area.” Later in the Introduction, it told me that I must “learn to note essential details quickly.” And then it provided me a list of these essential details at which I most assuredly did not look. I put the damned book on the shelf and did not look at it for two months. During those months, I took hundreds of photographs, and filled a notebook full of drawings and notes. Observations.

I made one exception to not wanting to know the name of a bird the first time I saw it. I remember hollering to Mr. Big Food, “Hey! What kind of giant bird has a white head and black body?” He asked where it was– flying back and forth over our bend in of the north fork of the Shenandoah River. It was so big even he could see it. He said, “Bald eagle?” The next day I confirmed that there were indeed bald eagles in the area. (Brings a tear to my eye just remembering this.) But I digress.

One does not need to know the name of something to observe how it behaves and inter- and reacts to other unnamed things in its proximal and distal environments. I’d even argue that one becomes a better observer if one is not ladened with labels, names, and a list of essential details to look for. Discover these details by watching. It’s called crappy old fashioned learning. (I’ll grant that names come in handy when communicating with others.)

Two points. First, I do not know the names of the various cloud formations, though I have crappy old books on weather forecasting and cloud identification right over there. That does not stop me from observing the sky and other components of my environment and learning how they interact. For example, when I open the door and air rushes in and I have to push to close it, I know the atmospheric pressure outside is rising. When I open the door to let the dogs out and it slams on Missy’s tail before she’s through, the pressure is falling. I don’t need to know what the pressure is to know this. Not knowing cloud names doesn’t stop me from carefully observing the sky as it relates to the weather. It shouldn’t stop you, either.

Second, I like my gadgets just as much as you like yours. But something I read the other day– interestingly, while I was working on Part 3 of Gathering Information on Bad Weather– gave me pause about the foci of that series.

The younger GPS generation was lost when their screens went dark. Their brains had been wired from early childhood to be led and directed from point to point by computer-generated voices and pixel arrows. By the time the grid went down most people were incapable of learning to navigate by map and compass, and anyway, almost nobody had them. 

The screen addicts couldn’t light a fire with an entire pack of matches: I’d seen them wasting match after match in the rain. The concept of dry kindling wood had escaped their educations entirely. 

Alas, Brave New Bracken, by Matt Bracken, Monday, August 26, 2013

[h/t American Digest]

Keep your matches dry and look up at the sky every now & again.

Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 1: How not to prepare
Gathering Information on Bad Weather Pt. 2: Tell me

10 Responses

  1. “The younger GPS generation was lost when their screens went dark.”

    I think this is largely true…and very scary.

    When I consider the future…well…it could be good, but it’s equally possible that disaster is just around the corner, so to speak.

    One of the big deals – to me anyway – is the possibility of an EMP. That would be an instantaneous reversion of about 100+ years. When I think about it….well…I’d just as soon _not_ think about it. We have so much so easily. And that doesn’t even begin to consider the “dark screen” thing.

    1. Yeah. An EMP is my worst worry. Our generator has both an electronic ignition and a pull cord. But even with our store of non ethanol gas, it’s not going to run forever.

      I worry about the transition, in the event of an EMP. John works 45 miles away from the Farm. So in this event, he’d have to walk home.

      Once he gets here, back to the farm, we’re go to go for a while. But it’s the getting here that worries me.

      We are in the mood to price whole house generators. But these burn propane. No matter how big your tank is, in an EMP you eventually run out of propane.

  2. “…in an EMP you eventually run out of propane. ”

    And no trucks to deliver more. As annoyed as I get with the truck traffic on the main highways (“why don’t they make a separate freeway just for trucks…” !!!) and especially because the local highway has seen a _tremendous_ increase in truck traffic over the last five years or so…
    Where would we be without them? They do make the country go.

    And…how would you know that you’d been hit with an EMP??

    1. My understanding is that everything that has anything to do with electricity just stops. Dead.

      Well. Here we go.

      “Especially since the 1980s, Nuclear EMP weapons have gained a significant presence in fiction and popular culture.

      “The popular media often depict EMP effects incorrectly, causing misunderstandings among the public and even professionals, and official efforts have been made in the United States to set the record straight.[38] The United States Space Command commissioned science educator Bill Nye to produce a video called “Hollywood vs. EMP” so that inaccurate Hollywood fiction would not confuse those who must deal with real EMP events.[55] The video is not available to the general public.”

      The science guy sets the record straight. How reassuring. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_electromagnetic_pulse#In_fiction_and_popular_culture

      This is interesting as far as it goes. https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/news/a28425/emp-north-korea/

  3. I know what you mean. I can remember a game in football, baseball, or basketball from 50 years ago and the names of the players involved but cannot remember the name of a butterfly or a wild flower (or weed) even after looking up their names only a few days ago. That still does not take away from the beauty of what your eyes or your camera are catching … at least in my book.

    1. Couldn’t agree more! Same for me with insects in the garden. I can tell the good guys from the bad but there are very few I can name.

      1. I wouldn’t go that far … lol … i just saw on the National Geograph Chanel the other night that some of those butterflies I like to take photos of are poisonous.

  4. Great post! We have a number of eagles nests here and I will try to take a picture of one of my favourites. Your quote really resonated with me. Not long ago, I bought a book that was on permaculture. The younger friend I was with asked why I did not just get in an e-format, but for me, I like to have the resource of that kind of information in a book. Just in case.

    1. Just in case! There is something about thumbing through a book that just cannot be achieved in e-format. Plus, when the lights go out… !

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