[ferreinm]

Blame it on the Weatherman

By NICOLE FERREIRA, MACINSIDERS

Rain, rain go away don’t come back ever again! If you’re not used to it raining almost every single day, Hamilton will definitely expose you to what you’ve been missing out on. I personally love dancing in the rain—just not everyday! What makes Hamilton so special? Why does it always seem to be raining? Let’s go back to our grade four science class to those Bill Nye the Science Guy notes.

Water can exist in three states of matter: solid, liquid and gas. Our planet is covered with mostly water. Hamilton has a ton of water—it isn’t known as The City of Waterfalls without good reason! We have about 100 waterfalls—top that Niagara Falls! Plus, right behind McMaster we have Cootes Paradise which includes the lake.

It starts off with something known as evaporation. Essentially, the water from the waterfalls and lakes rises way up to the clouds through the water form known as gas. The clouds can hold a lot of it when it is warmer. However, the cloud can only hold so much. The darker a cloud is the heavier it is. If the cloud gets too heavy or if the temperature cools down, a process known as condensation occurs. Condensation is when a gas turns into liquid also known as rain! The water is constantly going through this water cycle. Basically, the water you drink and shower with is the same water used a hundred years ago.

For those of you who’ve been in Hamilton all summer, like me, you may have noticed that we’ve been getting a lot of rain lately. Apparently, in Hamilton, June is the month with the most precipitation. In Hamilton, June blesses us with 84 mm of rain whereas in Toronto they receive 72 mm. In a year Hamilton gets about 900 mm of rain meaning nearly 10% of our annual rainfall is in our summer month. Toronto has 200 mm less than Hamilton annually. I guess if we wanted good weather we should have gone to U of T instead. We still have about half a month of rain to put up with. Here I was thinking that it’s practically summer and the sun should be shining all the time! Good news though, July has the least precipitation so welcome the sun with open arms next month. In the meanwhile, go ahead, dance in the rain and feel the recycled waters on your skin no one else can feel it for you!

And that’s science taught to you by a philosophy major (with the help of Bill Nye the Science Guy)!

[davey]

Hmmm. I don't find that we get rain everyday, but I do find that we get periods of consecutive rain days/storms followed by periods of back-to-back sunshine... and most of our rain seems to fall all at once in huge droplets as opposed to drizzle everyday.. which is nice. I dont like drizzle... only when it POURS!!

[ferreinm]

It rained like 4 days last week like crazy. Also, the weather is rarely nice its always murky. I know this because everyday I remember why I need to buy an umbrella yet I never remember to do so.

[davey]

Originally Posted by ferreinm

It rained like 4 days last week like crazy. Also, the weather is rarely nice its always murky. I know this because everyday I remember why I need to buy an umbrella yet I never remember to do so.

Yeah... last week was pretty bad... all those thunderstorms were crazy... but every summer (July-August) seems like a drought to me. It gets too hot!!!

Hmmm. also I wonder if different parts of the city get different weather... i live on the mountain currently... so not as close to the lake... I think we get less water moderation.

[ferreinm]

Hmm... I wonder. I'll look into it!

[ferreinm]

See, it's still raining everyday! Apparently, June isn't the only rainy month!

[lorend]

Sooo irritating. Ughhhh

[ferreinm]

According to K-Lite FM this summer has consisted of 40 rainy days. Summer starts in June so essentially 2/3s of our summer has been rained on

*bursts into song* Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun, Please shine down on meee