- Dr. Barry Lynn
WEATHER: No Summer Vacation This Year
Illustration: Scuba Diving (Image credit: Wix)
The other day I wrote about wrapping up my work for the "winter" season, and that I was about to hang up my barometer — which I did. For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase, it basically means that I stopped looking out the window, as there isn't really any place to put one's barometer but on the wall.
Oh, what complaints did I get! First, we had a family brit milah to attend to, which took place outside (because of Coronavirus protection regulations). The wind blew so strongly and fiercely that chairs blew away, and those fortunate to survive the gale had to be treated for hypothermia. The question was put, “Might you have at least issued a warning and suggested a different venue?"
Then, a few days later, we lay sweltering under high heat and humidity. I can understand the heat, but humidity in Jerusalem? "Why wasn't the air conditioning turned on?" I was asked.
The upshot is that I am back working — back out of summer vacation — like an old butler called back to set the Queen's palace back on track.
The weather turned a tad on the chilly side, but we didn't see any of the rain that the global forecasts indicated for last week — at least until last week arrived and we realized that it would just be unseasonably cool. We looked again for a chance of showers last Shabbat and early this week, as unseasonably cold weather arrived in the form of low pressure in the lower and upper atmosphere. The storm didn’t have a lot of mid-level moisture, so there wasn’t anything more than a passing shower.
Beyond this week’s brief, end-of-the-week warm up, the calendar shows that I may truly be able to return to a well-deserved vacation. Basically, no weather is expected (besides a few days of more summer-like weather) expected the rest of June.
Dr. Lynn is a lecturer at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Earth Sciences Department. He is also CEO of Weather It Is, LTD, a company that specializes in reducing weather risk. Click here to read more of this writer’s work in The Jerusalem Herald.
