People who know me can tell you that I have a deep fascination for all sorts of natural phenomena – which led me to conduct experiments with lightning, to create the first map of the Gulf Stream currents, and even to correctly explain storm movement in the northern hemisphere. But as I hear reports about the extremely unusual weather afflicting our country at this time, I can only wonder if there are still so many things we do not know about the study of weather.
The ice storm that recently swept through Philadelphia and New Jersey is an excellent example. Winter weather this severe, especially in this region, is a real rarity.
In my time, in the 1700s, of course, we simply would have stoked our fires, piled on extra blankets, and waited out the storm indoors, at home. There would not have been the obsessive urge to get out to our jobs in the town center.
Thousands without electricity
I am always amazed to see how far my invention of electricity has come in this future world…and how dependent people are on it. It is used for heating, lighting, cooking, and all these wondrous devices such as “television” and “computers.” But when an ice storm like this happens, it seems, that treasured resource is suddenly taken away, and thousands are left without their precious electricity. In this case, I have heard, many Pennsylvanians will be without power for days!
For that I am truly sad. But I also admit to mixed feelings on the subject, for if it weren’t for my original experiments with electricity, we would not be so dependent on it today, that an ice storm puts so many people at risk – and yet, electricity is also a blessing, one cannot deny.
This “polar vortex” that people say is creating much of this problematic weather is a subject that I would have loved to study in my younger days. I fear, however, that it is not so simple as charting the Gulf Stream as I once did. There are many other factors at play, including this matter of “global warming.”
I would certainly hope that the scientists of today can put their heads together and discover how to cope with, or prepare for, these increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.
As I once said so long ago in Poor Richard’s Almanack, “Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise.” We could use a few more weatherwise individuals at the moment.
Your humble servant,
B.Franklin
The ice storm that recently swept through Philadelphia and New Jersey is an excellent example. Winter weather this severe, especially in this region, is a real rarity.
In my time, in the 1700s, of course, we simply would have stoked our fires, piled on extra blankets, and waited out the storm indoors, at home. There would not have been the obsessive urge to get out to our jobs in the town center.
Thousands without electricity
I am always amazed to see how far my invention of electricity has come in this future world…and how dependent people are on it. It is used for heating, lighting, cooking, and all these wondrous devices such as “television” and “computers.” But when an ice storm like this happens, it seems, that treasured resource is suddenly taken away, and thousands are left without their precious electricity. In this case, I have heard, many Pennsylvanians will be without power for days!
For that I am truly sad. But I also admit to mixed feelings on the subject, for if it weren’t for my original experiments with electricity, we would not be so dependent on it today, that an ice storm puts so many people at risk – and yet, electricity is also a blessing, one cannot deny.
This “polar vortex” that people say is creating much of this problematic weather is a subject that I would have loved to study in my younger days. I fear, however, that it is not so simple as charting the Gulf Stream as I once did. There are many other factors at play, including this matter of “global warming.”
I would certainly hope that the scientists of today can put their heads together and discover how to cope with, or prepare for, these increasingly unpredictable weather patterns.
As I once said so long ago in Poor Richard’s Almanack, “Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise.” We could use a few more weatherwise individuals at the moment.
Your humble servant,
B.Franklin