<div dir="ltr"><div>Steve, <br></div><div>Thanks for your (as always) gracious and interesting commentary. <br></div><div><br></div><div>I didn't know the number was as large as six. <br></div><div><br></div><div>I am told we are about to have a a big weather event in the Pacific NW. I havent had time to look into it yet. <br></div><div><br></div><div>NIck <br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Nov 19, 2024 at 12:37 PM steve smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Nick -</p>
<p>a sub-anecdote from my last missive which I failed (deliberately)
to include was the time my father brought home a weather balloon
one of the ranchers had found on his grazing permit (USFS). He
had already sent the guts of the recording device to the
appropriate authorities (US weather service) but I fiddled with
the (latex) balloon itself and the shroud cables and the
weatherproof box housing the electronics (or was it entirely
mechanical like the Fu-Go you reference?).</p>
<p>I was on a 8 week "walkabout" in 2014 and just leaving the small
town of Thermopolis Wyoming where the first such (Japanese
incendiary) device was discovered when the NPR station I was
listening to gave a history of those events including referencing
the small town (hot springs location) I was just leaving. My
final destination was Portland/Seattle/Tacoma so I included visits
to the general location of the other landings in that area which
included Gearhart Mtn OR where 6 people died... the only injuries
from all those (order 10k?) launches. Sobering.<br>
</p>
<p>Last time I was at the ABQ balloon museum they had an exhibit on
these bomb-balloons including the mulberry-paper envelope... all
the envelopes and mechanical "logic" were hand-built apparently,
drawing on the rich Japanese craft traditions .</p>
<p>I hope your "weather book" is not OBE with the AMOC
weakening/collapse? Has your personal observation over decades
in New England included an experience of the presumed 10-20%
weakening over that time? I have lived in roughly 3 areas of the
southwest in my adult life (so AZ, no AZ, no NM) which undermines
my long-term direct apprehension of weather patterns. Your
reports on the "dry line" made me aware that we here in no NM are
on the edge of an interesting variable phenomena and I'd guess
that New England is yet more subject to weather fluctuations?</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div>On 11/19/24 11:58 AM, Nicholas Thompson
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>As a part of my plan to revise my weather book, I have been
working on a chapter on the jet stream. I am thinking of
using the passage below as a kind of epigraph. I am sending
it along because it brings together two of the salient
concerns of Our Glorious Leader. Comments, fact checks,
grumpy comments always welcome. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><i>During
the winter of 1944-5, in the last desperate days
of World War II, the Japanese military launched hundreds
of incendiary balloons
into the jet stream, hoping to ignite fires in American
forests.<span> </span>This ingenious scheme worked.<span>
</span>Many balloons made the 5,000 mile trip and
some even started small fires. However, the plan
ultimately failed. For a large
fire to be kindled by one of these devices, the ground had
to be had to be dry,
the temperature high, the humidity <span> </span>low,
the water table depleted, all conditions that often occur
during summer droughts.<span> </span><span> </span>Winter,
however, is the wet season in the American west. The same
jet stream that brought
in the balloons, also brought in waves of pacific moisture
that soaked the
ground and covered the high mountains in deep banks of
snow.<span> </span><span> </span><span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:115%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><i>This
bit of military history illustrates the relationship
between the jet stream and the weather we all experience,
day by day.<span> </span>The jet stream can initiate
severe weather,
can spark it, one might say, but only where conditions
below have been primed.<span> </span>Its seeds can only
flourish where the ground
has been prepared.<span> </span><span></span></i></p>
</div>
<br>
<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Nicholas S. Thompson</div>
<div>Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology</div>
<div>Clark University</div>
<div><a href="mailto:nthompson@clarku.edu" target="_blank">nthompson@clarku.edu</a></div>
<a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson" target="_blank">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>Nicholas S. Thompson</div><div>Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology</div><div>Clark University</div><div><a href="mailto:nthompson@clarku.edu" target="_blank">nthompson@clarku.edu</a></div><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson" target="_blank">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson</a></div></div>