On 29/4/07 08:53, in article lid, "Stewart Robert
Hinsley" wrote:

In message , Sacha
writes
snip

And yet people who sail will often notice a change in the weather during the
equinox - equinoctial gales are infamous. I don't have any explanation for
it, I've simply observed it many times. It's a bit like labour ward staff
who remark that there's a sudden influx of women in labour around the time
of the full moon - but that's a form of propagation that's OT for urg! ;-)

Weather conditions vary seasonally, and the equinoxes are fixed with
respect to the seasons, so it's not surprising that certain weather
conditions are correlated with the equinoxes. (I think Col had his
tongue in his cheek.)

The phases of the moon are not tied to the seasons, and there's no
obvious mechanism for it to effect the weather. However, somewhat to my
surprise, I find that there are papers reporting a correlation between
rainfall and phase of the moon in the US (with different phase
relationships in different regions).

See? There are things we know not of. ;-) Some time ago, I was at lunch
with some friends and my fellow guests were a retired Admiral and his wife.
He's also a keen sailor of somewhat smaller boats! Having had a really
awful sail from Turkey to Cyprus when my skipper "got the date wrong" at the
equinox (!) I thought that here I had my expert witness. I asked him if
he'd ever observed this equinox effect and he said "Often but I have no idea
how or why it happens". Which was kind of reassuring and disappointing at
the same time. So perhaps we have to put it down as something inexplicable
- just one of those things that we know happens but nobody can explain.

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--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
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