A Celebration of Wind Listen in RealAudio Email Your Comments

Dave Thurlow, Host

 
Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. Today we're joined by commentator Jan DeBlieu, as she enjoys the wonders of the wind during a drive on North Carolina's Outer Banks:

Jan DeBlieu

"I am driving south as fast as I dare, racing a rosy light to the north end of Hatteras Island. It is 6:45 on an early October morning. Last night a cold front, the first strong breath of winter, bore down on the Outer Banks with a bracing northeast wind. I am on my way to a wildlife preserve to watch for the hawks and falcons that are bound to come streaming by.

I like to think of the air that envelops and sustains us as being woven with shifting boulevards and tendril streets. I like to imagine an atmosphere of routes that remain invisible to people, but on which a host of creatures depend for transportation, for food, for signals about where to seek shelter.

To animals, especially the birds and flying insects, wind is a chariot to be ridden, a compass to be read. It is a source of knowledge about weather soon to come. It may even be a form of entertainment.

On my way south, I cross a high, arching bridge over Oregon Inlet. On the east side of the bridge three gulls hang in mid-air, pointing into the wind. They look for all the world as if they are having fun. And why not?

Why not steal a few moments to go hang gliding if you are a gull on an autumn morning? I drive on in a celebratory mood, my spirit buoyed high on waves of air."

Jan DeBlieu lives in Manteo, North Carolina and is a contributor to The Weather Notebook's new book, Soul of the Sky. For information about the book, please visit our website at mountwashington.org. Thanks to Subaru and the National Science Foundation.