THE THREAT OF BICYCLEZ

An interesting weather phenomenon

By Izzy Sommers, MD

When I was rich, some years ago, I owned a home, a highly mortgaged home, in Fonthill, Ontario, Canada, just north of Welland.  Cutting grass was de rigueur; otherwise, the grass police would be notified, resulting in a fine and/or municipal cutting of the grass with an atrocious charge.  I owned an electric mower and spewed the cuttings back into the lawn.  I became aware that wind direction would impede my progress if the clippings would be whipped into my face.  I made a simple, personal proposal: check the direction of the wind and mow in such a way that the clippings would be blown away from myself.  It seemed like such a simple task.

An East wind was extremely interesting.  I had known that most prevalent were the western winds: a nor’wester was the most common and the most threatening as it frequently brought colder air and even storms.  A southwestern wind was warmer and less furious, in my experience and, indeed, it had no notoriety.  An Eastern wind seemed strange.  I did some investigation and discovered that large air masses moving east to west occurred with counter-clockwise lows and clockwise highs, in terms of air pressure.  All counter-clockwise moving air masses in the Northern Hemisphere are low pressure systems, laden with moisture.  All clockwise, are high pressure systems, cool and clear.  The centres of these circular air masses are oriented north and south, more or less.  The high pressure circle would carry Arctic air from the Hudson’s Bay area to Welland and Fonthill.  The low would carry moist warm air from the Caribbean Gulf and the Gulf Stream areas of the USA Atlantic coast.  A slight shift North or South would mean a change from cloudy, rainy, humid conditions to cool, clear, blue sky conditions.

A look at a weather map should confirm the conclusion that the bicycle-like formation of double circular revolving air masses does exist.  Weather reports on television often show a North American map with the high and low pressure areas.  During an East wind situation, the BICYCLE should be clearly visible.  Frequently one is only shown the northern air mass or the southern air mass depending on weather the reporting broadcast is Canadian or American.  Newspapers more often show the weather map of the entire North American continent wherein the BICYCLE should be clearly visible.  Rarely is there a BICYCLE if the wind is from the West.  I, personally, have never seen it, but I have speculated that the weather maps showing the entire Western Hemisphere which would include both sides of the Equator, of course, reverses the situation of the North: the high pressure areas in the Southern Hemisphere would be counter-clockwise and the low, clockwise, I think…  In the face of Global Warming, where the CO₂ levels are now the highest they have been for 10,000 or more years, there may be other surprises about which I have no knowledge.

Since this is a new concept to most people, I believe it doesn’t have a Proper Name.  I propose we call it the BICYCLE PHENOMEN, or, if no one objects, THE DIZZYIZZYZ BICYCLE PHENOMENON.   Do I hear any seconds to my proposal for this name?  Are there any objections?  Are there any counter-proposals?  Is silliness a good description for this essay?

THE END

© izzy sommers, md

Welland, Canada

June 25, 2013

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