Turn To Weather When You're Bored

What do you do when you are bored witless and want to grow some more brain cells? Just when you think there is nothing left to do on summer vacation, here are a few weather related crafts and experiments. On the top of my list is time-lapse photography. Set up a camcorder on a tripod, point it at a hill or butte, and flip the time-lapse switch. Time-lapse cloud photography is fun to watch. You will see clouds try to develop and dissipate, some seemingly standing still while others whip on past. High clouds and low clouds may move in different directions, too. While the camcorder is running - preferably for several hours - you can study wildflowers, birds, assorted varmints, or just relax. However, it is a good idea to pack up and leave if a thunderstorm heads your way. In second place on time consuming projects is the making of an anemometer, a device used to measure wind speed. One style I worked on as a kid and never perfected used a bicycle wheel with a bunch of one or two-ounce cups attached to it. The cups have to be evenly spaced to that the wheel is balanced. All of the cups need to face the same direction and one should be distinctive so that you can count the number of revolutions it makes. The number of revolutions the wheel makes varies according to the wind speed, so the second step in this project is to find out how many times the wheel goes around at a given speed. The easy way to do this is to take a bicycle with the same diameter wheel and a speedometer. Spin the wheel until the speedometer reaches 10 m.ph. and count how many times it goes around in one minute. Do the same thing for 15 m.p.h. and 20 m.p.h. This can also be turned into a math exercise. You can find out how many times the wheel has to spin using the circumference of the wheel and some simple math. Finally, mount the wheel on a pole so that it is away from trees and level with the ground, then count the revolutions. Another project involving math is the construction of a rain gage. The easiest way to measure small amounts of rain is to magnify it. For example, meteorologists attach a tube that has a diameter of about one inch to a funnel that is either 4- or 8- inches across. The rain falls into the funnel and accumulates in the tube. The tube in my rain gauge fills one inch for every one-tenth of an inch of rain. Use the project as a math exercise to study area and volume. Start with a can that is about two inches in diameter - I like Pringles cans - and a funnel that is twice the diameter. Experiment with larger funnels and smaller cans and see which one magnifies the amount of rain the most. Weather diaries are fun, too. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin had weather diaries, recording the weather at sunrise, noon and sunset every day. It is an inexpensive project and makes you observe the world around you. Weather diaries can also be part of a trip diary, recording where you were and what the weather was like at a specific point in time. There is always something to do - something to observe - about the weather.