The Weather Notebook: When Negative Is Positive

When Negative Is Positive
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Dave Thurlow, Host

Live view of the Niagra Falls - fallscam.niagra.com

You know, the weather is such a source of stimulation. I find myself identifying past events just based on the weather. "Oh ya I remember that meeting. I'm not sure what it was about, but there was a great sunset and the wind was howling." Maybe the feelings we get from weather have something to do with the situation, but feeling may also come from electric charges in the air. Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow for The Weather Notebook.

Well, there are positively charged atoms in the air and negatively charged atoms too. We call atoms with a charge - ions. They are about equally distributed in the atmosphere overall, but some places have more of one kind. And the more negative ions, the better for us. Negative ions clean the air. They act like little magnets attracting pollutants and dust and dragging them to the ground.

An abundance of positive ions in the air is bad, because positive ions increase the production of a chemical called seratonin, a neurotransmitting chemical in our brains. More serotonin, the more likelihood of feelings of irritability, nervousness and depression.

So, where negative ions are produced, good feelings have a good chance. Places like waterfalls -- Niagara Falls is the negative ion capitol of the world -- the shoreline, the forest, especially pine forests, anyplace during a rainfall, heck even during a shower, negative ions are produced. And it's the negative ions in the air that are proving to cause positive feelings for us humans.

The Weather Notebook is underwritten by Subaru with major support provided by the National Science Foundation.