Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries
Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries
Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries
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<strong>Weather</strong> <strong>By</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Moon</strong><br />
the pattern. It’s almost as if it is on an expanding and contracting<br />
screw-thread.<br />
It is this variation in the wobble that produces the socalled<br />
Greenhouse Effect, Southern Oscillation, Humboldt<br />
Current Effect, Global Warming, El Nino, and La Nina patterns.<br />
<strong>The</strong> scientific world is currently in a tizz over these<br />
words and has been since 1987. But since 1863, the planet’s<br />
temperature has risen by only 0.1°C, and so far the<br />
effects have not been too catastrophic.<br />
No, the earth is not anywhere yet heating up to furnace<br />
point, the poles aren’t melting, we won’t suffocate to<br />
death because of aerosols killing all the oxygen, and nor<br />
are motorcars killing the planet. We should curb pollution<br />
that messes up our immediate environment, but there is<br />
nothing to panic over. When one realises what the <strong>Moon</strong> is<br />
doing, it is clear that its cycles are predictable. It has been<br />
moving from one end of its cycle to the other for thousands<br />
of years; and the weather has followed suit.<br />
MAXIMUM DECLINATION<br />
Let us recall how a spinning and wobbling flat dinner<br />
plate might slowly rise up again into a bigger wobble, only<br />
to settle back down a bit and repeat the process. Imagine<br />
that on the edge of such a spinning plane sits the <strong>Moon</strong>.<br />
That is the picture for each month, one spin every 27 and a<br />
half days. For each monthly declination, we pictured the<br />
<strong>Moon</strong> starting on AB as a reference point and going around<br />
while dipping below and then around further and coming<br />
back up to the beginning again. It does this month in and<br />
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