Have you ever wondered why we can smell the rain coming?
My grandfather could even track squirrels with his sense of smell. What he was best known for, however, was his incredible nose for weather.
He could tell a storm was approaching before anyone else in the county. One of my father’s earliest memories was running to warn neighbors that bad storms were coming so that they could get things covered.
Most of us have smelt approaching storms. Source: Wikipedia
Most of us have probably smelt that lovely fresh, earthy aroma of an approaching rain storm. He could smell it coming and even warn people about the strength and likelihood of tornadoes. (He went nuts once when he smelt a hurricane coming.)
He was an educated man (and became superintendent of the Vanderbilt, Texas school system) but the most educated part of him was his nose. In an era when radio coverage was spotty, especially in the country, the neighborhood practically thought of him as a medicine man.
Now scientists have discovered why people can smell the storms so far away. A sensitive snout is smelling ozone, petrichor and geosmin; in other words, the nose smells oxygen, the debris that raindrops kick up and wet bacteria.
First comes the ozone, the oxygen fried by lightening that changes its chemistry for O2 to O3. This has a sweet, pungent zing and winds carry it down from the upper atmosphere to your waiting nose. If you smell a lot of that—look out!
Ozone is produced by lightning, including this monster strike. Source Wikipedia
Then comes the raindrops. Scientists discovered that water drops hitting surfaces like soil or leaves knock particles up in the air. A raindrop hitting an uneven surface traps bubbles of air that shoot upwards and burst from the top of the water droplet like fizz in a champagne glass. These bubbles can float long distances before they pop and you can smell the pollens, dirt, oils or city scum. Nature’s champagne is called petrichor.
Finally, the wet soil triggers the bacteria or blue-green algae to release geosmin, that great earthy smell so loved by gardeners.
Drops of water spray aerosols into the air that you can smell downwind. Source: Wikipedia
That explains why my grandfather’s educated nose could smell approaching storms. How he tracked those squirrels through the woods remains a mystery.
ADVERTISEMENT
my dad told me two old thoughts on rain fall but I can not remember the answer. What does each one mean. One rain drops hitting a puddle and creating rings. Two rain drops hitting a puddle and creating bubbles on the surface of the puddle. Thank You , Mark
I had a boss from the north that could smell snow, kinda of how much & bad. One day at work
She said I smell snow. We all laughed, me not so hard (I can smell rain). As we were leaving that day
she says (this was on a Thursday) I'll see you all Monday. We ask why. She says," I smell snow, & it's going to be
deep enough & cold. It'll last the week-end" It did snow that night, but it was Tuesday before we went back
to work, ice covered roads!
My daughter and I are severely affected by the changes in Barometric pressure. In the middle of a pleasant sunny day, we (separate even by county) suddenly feel incredibly tired, almost a drunken sleepiness that overpowers and makes getting through the rest of the day difficult at best. The strangest thing is that once the approaching weather has arrived, we are no longer affected any more than the next person, it is only the approach that is almost debilitating.
Does anyone else feel this way?
Yes, I can smell the rain coming, and sometimes the snow, too. I could always do that. I knew that if the scent on the wind was sharp and wet, it meant rain in the summer and snow in the fall and winter, and maybe in the spring, too.
In addition, I get some really nasty sinus headaches when the front edge of a pressure front goes through my area. It feels like my face is being squeezed, and lasts about an hour. It's extremely unpleasant but there is no remedy for it because it is caused by a change in barometric pressure. Just have to sit it out.
Odd phenomenon but since smelled the rain when working as a lifeguard at 16. My 1st job-I didnt need to see clouds. I could smell the rain long before it his our area. When it got within a few miles, you can see it when looking in light--no sunlight. Normally the conditions when its cloudy.
2 big hints there. Smells wet and eventually, there is a dark mass in the sky --rains coming.
Comments