The weather forecast

Last Friday was a chilly day - ye olde thermometer topped out at a whopping 18°F. That afternoon, I was seated on the couch, by a window, and had one of the trademark experiences of living in an old house in New England during winter. To wit, I felt two breezes, one of which came straight from the depths of Sheol for it was colder than cold and made me feel like an ice cube; the second, which must have come from The Other Place, was warm and made me feel all cozy and such.

The juxtaposition of these two contrasting air masses made me wonder if, with a little ingenuity (and an insane amount of luck), I could create some "weather" right from the comfort of my own living room.

You know what I mean. I'd set up a fan beside the window to create a little atmospheric instability. Then I'd start a vaporizer down by the radiator to increase the relative humidity of the warm air mass. Then, as the warm air rose, I'd watch these little huge cumulonimbus clouds form and thunderstorms develop. If I was feeling adventuresome, I'd set up another fan just opposite the other and create a vortex (i.e. tornado).

Can you imagine! Wouldn't life be more interesting if you had to keep an eye out for that squall line of thunderstorms racing across your living room? But our house usually looks (mostly due to its younger inhabitants) like a tornado went through it anyway, so its probably just as well the "weather" stays outside.