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Workweek Causes Climate Changes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the everyone-take-the-week-off dept.

Shipud writes "An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that daily temperature ranges are smaller on weekdays than on weekends. This phenomenon is strongest in the US, but also appears in China and Japan. The researchers attribute this to human activity, although the exact mechanism is unclear. The prime suspect is aerosol / cloud interactions. Here is the more legible version from Scientific American"

9 of 203 comments (clear)

  1. Does this explain by gnuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    why it's nice and sunny all week and then rains every weekend?

    1. Re:Does this explain by waynemcdougall · · Score: 5, Informative
      Actually it does. As reported in Nature, August 1998.

      Popular press take on it

      Abstract:
      Direct human influences on climate have been detected at local scales, such as urban temperature increases and precipitation enhancement, and at global scales,. A possible indication of an anthropogenic effect on regional climate is by identification of equivalent weekly cycles in climate and pollution variables. Weekly cycles have been observed in both global surface temperature and local pollution data sets. Here we describe statistical analyses that reveal weekly cycles in three independent regional-scale coastal Atlantic data sets: lower-troposphere pollution, precipitation and tropical cyclones. Three atmospheric monitoring stations record minimum concentrations of ozone and carbon monoxide early in the week, while highest concentrations are observed later in the week. This air-pollution cycle corresponds to observed weekly variability in regional rainfall and tropical cyclones. Specifically, satellite-based precipitation estimates indicate that near-coastal ocean areas receive significantly more precipitation at weekends than on weekdays. Near-coastal tropical cyclones have, on average, significantly weaker surface winds, higher surface pressure and higher frequency at weekends. Although our statistical findings limit the identification of cause-effect relationships, we advance the hypothesis that the thermal influence of pollution-derived aerosols on storms may drive these weekly climate cycles.

      --
      Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
  2. The solution! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A mandatory 7 day work week! This will result in stability.

  3. Aerosol by NanoWit · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know when I'm driving to work on weekdays I go through about 2 cans of aerosol spray. You know, just to pass the time. Maybe it's my fault, sorry guys.

  4. This can't be right. by hcuar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nah, this can't be right... The matrix would suffer from low power and the human's would start to see glitches. OMG! That's why I had to work weekends for the last year! Here I thought it was because we were hopelessly behind in our project! Maybe it is true!

  5. Re:Welp.. people drive more during the week... by SirSlud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lots of 'discoveries' should be read as 'confirmations'. You wouldn't want to build the foundation of science and technological progression on assumptions, would you?

    Mind you, of course that happens, but I always think this way when people say 'duh'. Remember, at some point, somebody would have said 'duh' had you concluded that the earth was the centre of the universe. ;)
    Garret

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  6. Sept. 11-13, 2001 Research Results by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Due to the unprecedented halt of all non-military air travel over the United States during the above period, scientists were able to perform research on the effects of jet contrails. During their research, it was found that a single jet contrail could be tracked by satellite across the U.S., growing from a narrow plume of vapor to substantial cloud cover as it traveled the country. Such detailed observation was not possible before, due to the thousands of flights a day crossing the U.S. I believe the study you are referencing is linked to this one.

    The majority of flights across the U.S. are during the daytime hours on weekdays. Sounds like a high probability of a connection here, this deserves further investigation.

    M.O.
    http://www.madocowain.com
    http://www.play maille.com

  7. The actual prime suspect by worst_name_ever · · Score: 5, Funny
    The prime suspect is aerosol / cloud interactions.

    No, the prime suspect is my co-worker Bob. Man, does that guy ever have B.O. Jeez.

    --

    In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
  8. A Possibility I was partially responsible for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many of the weather stations that record the data that these people used are simple mercury or alcohol thermometers that get read by humans.

    I was one of these thermometer readers in grad school. During the work week, I was up for class or to go to the office, so I always read the thermometer at the same time, like I was supposed to. On weekends, it was hard to get the motivation to get out of bed early just to read a thermometer, so a lot of times I read it later than I was supposed to and guesstimated what the temp was a few hours earlier.

    I worried about the researchers using data from my weather station, but not enough to drag my butt out of bed any earlier.