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Christmas Past
Fri Dec 24, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Tonight is Christmas Eve, and this
thought got Commentator Bill Clough remembering back to 1953, and a special
present under the tree:
It was a sure sign of childhood's end. Christmas gifts changed from toys to tools. Of all
the surprises under the tree, the best was an Airguide Weather Kit.
Inside: a barometer, a rain gauge, a thermometer and a pad of observations forms.
And a book about weather and a cloud chart and a weather map printed by the U-S
Government
Printing Office. Rapture for a kid fascinated by the weather (or something like this to
show what it meant to you, and to help tie in to the ending).
The map was months old but filled with hieroglyphics that demanded hours of
snowbound study.
By that afternoon, I had installed the rain gauge and the thermometer: rain gauge
15-feet away from obstructions, thermometer on the shady-side of the house. And I
was expanding my vocabulary with words such as "anemometer," "mini-max"
thermometer, "wet-bulb" and "instrument shelter."
I still have the barometer. (tapping sound) Pressure’s rising: a good sign.
Airguide, of Chicago, is long out of business. But, as I shopped this Christmas, I
could
only shake my head at the digital weather stations available that I could only have
dreamed of, then.
In one display: time, date, wind speed, wind chill, peak wind gust, dewpoint, pressure
trends, indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity, a rain gauge and even the
phase of the moon. Curiously, not wind direction. I wonder why? Still, somewhere this
Christmas, maybe one of these high-tech beauties could turn another curious 12-year
old into a nascent weather observer.
So as I look at my old barometer, I leave you with this evening’s weather report: all is
calm. . .all is bright.
For whatever you celebrate this season, we a The Weather Notebook wish you happy
holidays. Our show is brought to you by Subaru of America.
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