Listener Question: A Weather Breeder
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I'm Dave Thurlow for the weather Notebook. Here's a listener question from Steve Collins of Bridgeton Maine, a listener of Maine Public radio.

"I want to ask a question about an expression...a weather breeder....that we use up here in northern New England. The expression refers to the exceptionally clear day before the arrival of a storm. I think I've often noticed the effect, but no ones been able to explain it to me. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say".

I first heard the term weather breeder from Don Kent, he was a TV weathercaster in Boston who I watched him all the time when I was a kid. One time he described a beautiful, crisp, clear day using the term weather breeder. A clear day like this, he said, is sure to breed a day of stormy weather; and, the snowstorm on the following day arrived right on cue.

The next time he designated the day as a weather breeder, I ran to the window and gazing at the blue sky hoped to catch the very moment that this breeding day gave birth to tomorrow's storm. But I got distracted. I was only ten. I had no idea that storms were transient. I thought that they just appeared. And only Don Kent knew when.

The simple movement of weather from west to east is behind the explanation of the term. Crisp clear weather, in winter especially, is a symptom of high pressure. Stormy weather accompanies low pressure. Highs and lows follow each other across the continent. As highs move off to the east, they drag their clear, calm and crisp centers across the land below for about one weather breeding day, before yielding to the next low-pressure system upstream to the west.

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