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Maple Leaves
Mon Aug 04, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
When I was a kid a very long time ago, I was both thrilled and scared to pieces of
thunderstorms. And I actually got pretty good at predicting them, and why is our
Brainstorm
for this month. Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook.
Before the big storm hits, and thunderstorms are among the biggest storms on the
planet, often
punching into the stratosphere, you may notice an interesting phenomenon. Where I
grew up, the
leaves on maple trees would flip over and show their silver bellies, and I knew there
was a
good chance for thunder, lightning, and a cooling rain to follow within a couple of
hours.
The same thing also happens in other parts of the country with aspen trees, oaks,
elms, tulip
trees. Earlier in the century, perhaps our forebears watched for this leaf inversion on
the
American Chestnut.
Now there is a solid meteorological reason for this to happen, and we want you to tell
us what
it is. That's how our Brainstorms work. If we use your answer on the air when we solve
the
puzzle on September 1st, you win our magic Weather Notebook coffee mug. It works
well for
latte and chai tea, too.
If you think you know the answer, give us a call at (888) RAIN-001. That's (888)
724-6001. You
can also send us an e-mail at questions@weathernotebook.org. But
be prepared for us to call
and record your answer for our show.
The question again: why do leaves on the trees flip over before a thunderstorm? If you
would
like to review the question, check out past Brainstorms, or look up any of our other
stories,
go to our website: www.weathernotebook.org.
The Weather Notebook comes to you through generous grants from The National
Science
Foundation, and Subaru, Driven by What's Inside.
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