Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Weather By The Moon
of-mass of the Earth and Moon. However, at local points
on, above, or within the Earth, these two forces of mutual
planetary attraction are not in equilibrium, and oceanic,
atmospheric, and Earth tides are the result.
ALL TIDES
All the tides are caused by different strengths of the
Moon’s gravity at different points on the Earth. The side of
the Earth facing the Moon is about 4000 miles closer to
the Moon than the center of the Earth is, and the Moon’s
gravity pulls on the near side of the Earth more strongly
than on the Earth’s center. This produces a tidal Earth bulge
on the side of the Earth facing the Moon. The Earth rock is
not perfectly rigid; the side facing the Moon responds by
rising toward the Moon by a few inches on the near side.
Estimates have ranged from 6-12 inches for the Earth Tide.
The notion that the land beneath your feet, with you on it,
rises a few inches to meet the moon as it passes overhead
each day is hard to accept, as we have nothing to compare
the vertical movement to.
The Sun and Moon pull on everything, and the resultant
directions of those separate (and at New moon times,
combined) pulls depend on the massse of what is being
pulled. The more fluid seawater responds quicker than the
land, and the air responds quicker than the sea. There is a
bulge of water continually underneath the transitting moon
which produces the ocean tides, but also a larger and quicker
bulge of air and a smaller and slower bulge of land.
Whilst a known high sea tide is on the moon’s side of
the earth, it has often been speculated upon as to why there
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