Don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes!
There are a lot of sayings when it comes to our weather, but one of the most popular must be, “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”
Of course, our weather often doesn’t change every five minutes, but sometimes it does.
Last week in Halifax, the sunshine came out after a rain-soaked morning, but in the afternoon, it went from being sunny to snow-squalllike and back to sunshine, in just over five minutes.
Growing up, I thought the phrase was Nova Scotiaexclusive, given the saying can mention the province by name. A lot of us often view this as a local saying, but it’s one used around the world — especially where weather conditions are more erratic and variable.
The origins of the phrase are not 100 per cent clear, but writer and humourist Mark Twain is often credited with popularizing the phrase about New England’s weather.
Of course, changes in our weather often don’t occur in minutes, especially with largescale weather systems, but the odds of it happening increase with convective weather.
Convection refers to the vertical transport of heat and moisture — often through updrafts in an unstable atmosphere. This is most common with daytime heating in the summer, producing showers and thunderstorms, but can happen in the winter too.
Convective precipitation is no more than 10 km wide and often lasts less than a half hour, but precipitation rates can be intense. Because it’s short-lived and localized this can lead to changeable conditions in a short period.
Consider other atmospheric factors and the microclimates of our region, and the weather can change in the blink of an eye.
Sometimes, all we must do is wait five minutes.