nature: weather

When i was about 8 my neighbor told me that if you lifted your arms up from your sides and made them touch above your head and bring them back down multiple times it would make rain not fall where you were standing it had some magical power that would stop the rain from falling in your spot.

When I was 4 or 5 I used to think that the wind came from trees, that somehow, the trees were moving and fanning the earth... My mom had to explain that it was the other way around.

When patches of fog would form in the hills of eastern PA, my dad would tell me that the rabbits were having carrot roasts and the patches of fog in the trees was the smoke from their fires. I believed that until I was almost a teenager.

I used to believe that the Earth had a finite number of clouds. In other words, I thought that rainclouds just drifted around from one place to another, carried by the wind. When it stopped raining, that meant that the rainclouds had just blown somewhere else. I still remember the day I was watching a little cloud alone in the sky and it melted away, and I thought, "Where did it go? What a minute...clouds disappear?!"

When i was little i believed that the loud wind you heard was a big monster coming to eat us all! So when i heard that i would run to the house. 2 years ago i figured out that that wasn't true. And I'm 15!

-dani

one i was a child i used to belive that sun shine just in my contrey.

We were driving to Florida for Christmas, and I knew it was warm there. I thought there was an actual line where the snow stopped, and the sun and grass began. I was very disappointed to see that it got warmer gradually as we drove South.

I used to think that I controlled the strength of the wind outside according to the strength of my breath, and that if I would breath or blow really hard, it would get windier...it worked I tell you!

When I was in kindergarten our teacher was trying to explain that there are four seasons in each year, each three months long and starting on a set date, such as winter starting on December 21st. The thing is, this was in the Canadian prairies, which are hellishly cold, even for Canada, and I remember getting into a huge argument with the teacher because in reality, winter (at the least) started in mid-October and went until early April. I remember trying to argue that if October was really in the fall, why did we have to wear parkas over our Halloween costumes?

As a child of the desert and 70-degree Christmases, I had little experience with snow. I had seen in portrayed many times in cartoons and movies, though. A jingling bell sound always seemed to accompany it.

Therefore, I resolutely believed that snow made a "jingle, jingle, jingle" sound as it fell. When it miraculously snowed one day when I was in first grade, I was rather disappointed to learn that this wasn't true...

I used to believe that when it was raining god was peeing on everyone haha.

Whenever it rained I used to believe that God pushed this powerful button to control the intensity, duration, and time of day the rain would fall.

In elementary school, I misread the word "cumulus" and thought cumulus clouds were actually "Columbus clouds." I realized by sixth grade that I'd been wrong, but I still like the picture "Columbus clouds" gives me of the explorer leaning forward at the front of the ship, guided by the huge stacks of white clouds passing across a cerulean blue sky. So for me, "Columbus clouds" they will remain.

When I was about 5 years old I believed that if I put a thermometer in the freezer, it would start to snow outside. I even tried it once but my grandmother found out and put a quick stop to my experiment.

When I was little and I heard a weather report in the winter, I always wondered why they gave two temperatures: one for the "windshield factory" and one for everyone else. I couldn't figure out why it would have to be so much colder where they made windshields. I don't remember how long I thought this before I learned about the wind chill factor.

I used to believe…

used to believe that clouds were porridge