Cloudy and Cool Paul Yeager–Huffington Post
Posted by languageandgrammar on January 20, 2011
By Paul Yeager, author of Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities
This is completely off-topic, but since so many of us have had to deal with more snow than we may like, I’m here to help.
Use snow as an excuse to get out of something that you don’t want to do in the first place (such as work): Top 10 Snow-Related Excuses.
You’re welcome.
car stuck in snow
Of course, if it’s that bad, then you don’t need any excuses!
The above image is from RTE 2fm
Posted in humor, off topic, weather | Tagged: excuses to miss work, humor, off topic, paul yeager, snow, top 10 list, weather | Leave a Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 20, 2010
By Paul Yeager, author of Weather Whys: Facts, Myths and Oddities
I know that I recently talked about the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas, but I don’t think that means the holiday should be ignored.
Many people care about Christmas, and many of those care about whether it will be a white Christmas–even those who typically despise snow.
From a weather perspective (remember, I’m a meteorologist, too), many of us will, indeed, have a white Christmas, which is defined as having at least an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas day.
It does not have to be snowing on Christmas day–just snow on the ground.
For details, read my AOL News article, Widespread White Christmas Expected Across US, for details.
Posted in off topic, weather | Tagged: off topic, paul yeager, weather, white christmas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on November 19, 2010
By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever
We have often noted that often repeated language and grammar errors seem to become “correct” usage. Wouldn’t it be weird if math used that philosophy? When enough people said 2+2=5, it would! It would still equal 4, of course, but it would also equal 5.
In the vein, I thought that I’d go off topic today and note a particularly pervasive myth that is constantly stated at this time of year:
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year.
Not only is it typically NOT the busiest travel day of the year, it’s often not even close–at least as far as air travel is concerned. As recently as 2008, there were 220 busier travel days that year.
For more information, see Holiday Travel Myths Exposed.
Granted, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is still busiest travel day of the year for people who are willing to go a surprisingly long distance to eat turkey, which may very well be overcooked.
It’s surprising that the myth has survived as long as it has. First of all, there are records for such things. Second, while many people travel for the holiday, they’re not competing with business travelers for the most part–a large portion of normal travelers are staying at home.
By the way, if you are traveling, then you might want to check out my AOL News article on possible weather-related travel delays.
Posted in off topic, weather | Tagged: myth, off topic, thanksgiving travel, thanksgiving travel myth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on November 9, 2010
In case you hadn’t noticed, we changed the look of the blog recently. The most recent template didn’t highlight the pages on the site as well as this one does, so let me introduce (or re-introduce) some of the pages here.
Paul Yeager is also a meteorologist and has done quite a bit of writing related to the weather, so we wanted to share those resources as well.
Posted in grammar, language, weather, writing | Tagged: aol news, grammar, language, paul yeager, sherry coven, weather, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on August 25, 2010
By Paul Yeager, author of Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities and Cloudy and Cool.
Awesome is often used to mean something incredibly good, but technically, it means something that inspires awe of any type. When I saw that the video of Hurricane Katrina, released by NASA five years after the devastating storm, the only word that came to mind is awesome.
See the video in the NASA Releases Eye-Opening Satellite View of Hurricane Katrina story on AOL news.
Posted in language, weather | Tagged: awesome, hurricane katrina, weather | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on June 16, 2010
Since we changed the design of the site, I know that some of our other pages are not as obvious as they were in the past, but they’re still there, including:
Posted in grammar, language, weather, writing | Tagged: common grammar errors, grammar, language, literally the best language gook ever, myths and oddities, paul yeager, sherry coven, weather whys facts, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on April 7, 2010
I’m a meteorologist and author (Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities), and I know I’ve said it, but, technically, temperatures cannot be warmer or colder.
A temperature is a number, which means that it can be higher or lower, not warmer or colder. One hundred is not warmer than 20, and 20 is not colder than 100.
As far as the air is concerned, it is indeed warmer at 100 degrees than it is at 20 and colder at 20 degrees than it is at 100; however, the numbers themselves are either higher or lower. Therefore, technically, we should say that the temperatures are higher or lower, not warmer or colder.
–Paul
Posted in language, weather, writing | Tagged: higher or lower, paul yeager, temperatures, warmer or colder, weather, weather whys | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on March 13, 2010
We can’t live on language and grammar alone, so please let me share my exciting news with you. My weather book, Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities is available in bookstores (and online) now. I think that anyone who’s interested in the weather will enjoy it. For more weather information, stop by Cloudy and Cool.
While not a science-heavy book, easy-to-understand weather explanation is mixed with how the weather affects our lives, quite possibly in ways we’ve never thought of before, such as sporting events, health and home, and historic events. The book also separates fact from fiction as it relates to common weather beliefs and ancient wives’ tales. (A chapter-by-chapter outline is below)
Weather Whys can also be purchased in book stores (national chains and many independent bookstores), as well as through online book sellers:
For more information on the book, check out a few of the reviews:
Or, watch me talk about the book during my recent tv interviews:
Chapter-by-chapter outline:
Chapter 1: Bite-Size Morsels: Weather Basics
Chapter 2: It Always Rains in Seattle: Weather Myths and Misconceptions
Chapter 3: Weird Weather: Unusual and Surprising Phenomena
Chapter 4: From Our Forefathers to Hurricane Katrina: Weather History
Chapter 5: Field of Dreams: Sports-Related Weather
Chapter 6: What Does “Red Sky at Night” Mean?: Weather Wives’ Tales
Chapter 7: Plains, Trains, and Crops: How Weather Affects Transportation and Crops
Chapter 8: The Weather is Everywhere: Health and Home
–Paul
Posted in off topic, weather | Tagged: meteorology, paul yeager, weather, weather book, weather whys | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on February 27, 2010
As regular readers of the blog are undoubtedly aware by now, my weather book, Weather Whys: Facts, Myths, and Oddities, will be in book stores in just a couple of days (March 2, to be exact).
One of the advance-sale copies was reviewed by EMagazine.com. The review is about 2/3 of the way down the page.
The reviewer was very kind and mentioned that the book is a candidate for bathroom book of the year, which I guess means that if you have 2 1/2 bathrooms in the house, you need to buy 2 1/2 copies!
–Paul
Posted in off topic, weather | Tagged: emagazine.com, meteorology, paul yeager, weather | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on December 11, 2009
I know. I know. You’re thinking that this post has absolutely nothing to do with grammar or language, and I want to assure you that you are absolutely correct. It’s not relevant to the blog; it’s relevant to the blogger, and that’s close enough for me.
For those who are interested, please read my article, It’s Beginning to Look Like a White Christmas, on sphere.com. Sphere is the redesigned aol news, with a focus on original reporting, analysis, and commentary (about sphere).
I was also interviewed by sphere.com editor Steve Pendlebury for his article, A Perfect Storm: When Politcs and Weather Collide.
I know that this smacks of shameless self promotion, but at least I didn’t mention my weather blog, cloudyandcool.com.
–Paul Yeager
Posted in off topic, weather | Tagged: global warming, off topic, paul yeager, sphere.com, weather, white christmas | Comments Off
