I've always been interested in weather, but since I've moved to upstate New York, I've become a wanna-be geek, given the extremes here. Part of achieving full geekhood is understanding what all the terms mean.

A pair I see a lot are "heating days" and "cooling days." What are these? And what is "wet bulb"?

Wet bulb is part of a thermometer pair: wet bulb/dry bulb. The dry bulb will give you the absolute temperature of the air and the wet bulb will give you a cooler temperature based on the cooling effect of the evaporating water on the bulb. The drier the air the cooler the wet bulb, since there will be more evaporation. There is a formula for determining the relative humidity based on the wet bulb and dry bulb temperature readings.

A pair I see a lot are "heating days" and "cooling days." What are these?

Heating days and cooling days refer to use of furnace/boiler or A/C. In NYC a landlord is required by law between Oct 1 and April 20th to provide heat any day the temperture falls below 55º at night.

if there is a late (or early) 'cold snap' (a cold night in late August--when the tempurature drops to 48 degrees- ) and the landlord doesn't have the boiler/furnace ready to provide heat (and doesn't have to!) He can not be fined. but come Oct, if there is no heat, he risks being fined in housing court, (a housing violation, get enough, and the city puts a lein on the property)

if Oct is unseasonable mild.. (and night time temps remain above 55º--) the land lord does not have to provide heat! (so a 58º--pretty cool) might result in a chilly apartment in the AM--no over night heat!--and again, no fine to landlord.

NYS has some energy rebate programs for the elderly, and some of these are also based on 'heating'/'cooling days'--
i don't particapate in these programs (STAR is the name of one as i recall) but these programs also use 'heating'/'cooling' day info.

I think your "heating days" and "cooling days" are a shortening of the terms "heating degree days" and "cooling degree days". Definitions:

Heating Degree Days
The cumulative number of degrees in a month or year by which the mean temperature falls below 18.3°C/65°F.

Cooling Degree Days
The cumulative number of degrees in a month or year by which the mean temperature is above 18.3°C/65°F.

These are from:

http://www.worldclimate.com/define.htm

Now, what does all this mean? See
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y1AB25218

Helen, I remember that so well from my three years in Manhattan. But yes, what it turns out I was referring to is TEd's reply. I'm still confused, though: it seems like the terms are reversed!

~~~
Edit: I'll have a look at TEd's "what does it all mean?" link... shoulda done that to begin with.

When it gets below 65° you turn the heat on, when it gets above 65° you turn the AC on., unless you live in Southern California in which case when it gets below 70° you turn the heat on and when it get above 60° you turn the AC on.

OK, thanks everybody. I *get it now!

Anybody else have any good weather terms to share? One I learned recently is virga. I like that one.

I'll bet Bean knows some. Bean?

I just love the sonerousness of the British sea areas, as used in the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4. Unfortunately, we have recently lost "Finisterre", which is now Frobisher, and heligoland, which has become something so unintersting that I can't even remember what it is!

But we still have, Humber, Sole, Viking, Dogger - all in the North Sea, and Valencia and Mallin Head on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, and Iceland, faroes, North Uitzerer, South Uitzerer up in the North Atlantic.
Oh! the romance of the sea!!

From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-four leagues.

IIRC

IIRC the daftynition of a league was the traditional distance you could walk in a day...

which if true would make it a spectacularly scilly measurement at sea :)

a spectacularly scilly measurement at sea

Take it up with those fans of the fair Spanish ladies.

fair Spanish ladies

and come to think of it (I must be bored!) when did you last see a Spanish lady who was fair, except in the Shakespearean usage?

when did you last see a Spanish lady who was fair…?

Don' ast me. I'm jus oney quoting from the song.

hah!

So to do my duty by the original thread, I'll offer the phrase 'wind chill factor'.

AFAIK it's a namericanism which has nowadays prolly spread all over the world. I remember recognising it as a strange term when I worked in Moo Joisey - and soon realising its udder uniqueness when beholding a calf with ears lost through frostbite!

A Britism heard on Radio 4 a few times is the delightful "organised rain", as in 'a period of showers will be follwed by MOR spreading in from the West later...'

course now they say that wind chill factor t'ain't accurate, it's being replaced by "real feel"...
but then I always liked a real feel better anyway...

AnnaS's reference to upstate NY reminded me of a week long visit I made years ago to a town called Olean where I was told about some seriously unbelievable winter weather conditions that could arise in the Adirondacks. But the place stays in my mind mainly due to the argument I had with the waitress in the motel dining room because I required my bottle of French red at room temperature rather than chilled. She really didn't want to serve it to me that way - was sure I wouldn't like it. The Castle Motel it was. Wonder if it's still there. I remember it fondly!

Why did she want to chill the red dxb? Was the room too hot.

Either that, or the room was colder than the refrigerator . It was winter in the Adirondacks after all!

Was the room too hot

It was an USn room. Ya'll gots ta remember we think y'all drink your beer warm because you drink it at room temperature.

Her firmly held belief was that all wine should be drunk chilled otherwise it would taste unpleasant. After all this time I don't recall which red it was other than it was French and it was not a young Beaujolais Village, which you might serve slightly chilled (NB: I am not a wine snob I can get happy on anything, just some things, once heard, stick in the mind for no good reason).

Anybody else have any good weather terms to share? One I learned recently is virga.

Since you like "virga", AnnaS, you will like "altostratus".

When you see an altostratus cloud, virga is often its offspring.