NOAA at the Library

A hydrologist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Andy Bryant,  did a short talk for kids at the Tigard Library.  He discussed some of the myriad data sources they use to prognosticate weather.  A slide showed my favorite:  a weather balloon being launched.  He says they are launched in Salem every twelve hours, as they are from about 800 sites worldwide, with small data recorders and transmitters attached.  The weather balloon starts out about the size of a small car and expands to the size of a house,  high up in the atmosphere, before popping.  Then a small parachute slows the descent of the data recorders, in the off chance they are eventually recovered and returned.    He brought this amazing toy with him- a model designed to demonstrate the different effects of parking lots, retention ponds, and wetlands on a watershed.  The kids set up little plastic houses  on different levels within the model, then poured water into a tray with small holes in it to simulate rain.  In this photo you can see rain falling on the parking lot model.   Some clay has been added to the river to form a dam, and the children were thrilled to see the river overflowing its banks and sweeping away little plastic houses.  Remarkably, when I asked Mr. Bryant if this destroyed his faith in human nature to see these children so gleefully creating a catastrophe, he said no!