December 3, 1998 transcript # 262-4
Subject(s): brainstorm
Title: Brainstorm: The Draw

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and today on the Weather Notebook we have a brand new Brainstorm but this time you have to listen to a tale of "the draw" from our Ireland correspondent, Chuck Kruger.

"Our first Christmas on a remote Irish island we learned to respect "the draw." We'd often heard stories about it, but never quite believed them, having often, in summers, paddled our kayak around headlands and deep into caves. Occasionally we'd witness a tidal race, even hear a stretch of loud rippling water, but no draw.

Still, we listened to the tales about the draw, gradually came to sense some mythical beast. Well, it's hour' came round at last that December. We suddenly saw the draw rushing in and out of North Harbor. We heard it shift the stony shoreline, heard it toss rocks onto the road. We watched the shallow-drafted mailboat do battle with it when she bravely chanced a quick run to the mainland. The most dangerous part for the boat was not out in the giant seas, but in the island harbor where white water created by the draw resembled a raging river in spate in conflicting directions.

Nights we put our feet up, pulled chairs closer to the fire, heard stories from neighbors about, of course, the weather, the banshees of Christmases past, the lobster bigger round than a large loaf of brown bread and able to leap up out of a bucket of water if you made the mistake of passing your hand over it in the dark. And now, we too tell stories about the infamous draw."

So, today's Brainstorm Question, not to put any pressure on you; is to describe what causes "the draw". What meteorological parameter is involved? If you have any idea please phone in your answer and leave it on the machine at 1-888-RAIN-001. And you can answer from our website weathernotebook.org.

Thanks to the Mount Washington Observatory, Subaru and The National Science Foundation.