Random ranting...

[LilGrimmy]

So as some of you know, I started college this year. My goal is meteorology, duh. I'm only taking liberal arts classes that way my grades are good enough to transfer but the only class I'm taking that has anything to do with that is Environmental Science and we're talking about the food web... Are you for real?! COME ON!!! bring on the weather!

[Stephanie]

Anyone that's gone to college has had to take the required, base classes on their way to their major. Even the classes that relate to your major may seem to be a little out there, but trust me, you will see a reason for why you need to know this later in your career.

I can see how Environmental Science and the food web would relate to meteorology. It's nature and if one thing is affected, it causes a ripple throughout everything else. It's all about relationships and how they work together.

Keep your chin up. You'll be neck deep into your major studies in no time!

[JonathanBelles]

Trust me when I say, I started in community college as an 'undecided' major I was thinking the same thing you are. I wasn't able to say I was a meteorology major because they didn't have the major, nor did they want to let me do an independent major. I was able to take earth science and intro to meteorology. From there, I knocked out all the physics, chemistry, and math classes I could take. I also took communication classes and basically anything else that could be related to meteorology (which, as you will learn is just about everything). Out of the fifty or so classes that I have taken, only one or two did not have any implications on meteorology.

For instance, you mentioned the food web. The first thing that came to mind for me was spiders. There are two very good wise tales that deal with spiders and meteorology:

1) When spiders build webs to feast, the weather will clear up or remain tranquil. This is true because when it rains or when humidity is on the increase, webs contract and rip, and all of their food goes to waste. Spiders are known to abandon their webs before it rains days in advance.

2) When you squash a daddy long legs spider, it will rain. This one also has some (albeit, limited) truth in that, daddy long legs go find shelter just before a storm. You are just more likely to run into a spider when it is in this 'shelter' than when they are outside.

Stories be told, but when in your underclassmen years try to draw links in your mind from every class to meteorology. It will help in the long run.

[gigabite]

When you squash a daddy long legs spider, it will rain. This one also has some (albeit, limited) truth in that, daddy long legs go find shelter just before a storm. You are just more likely to run into a spider when it is in this 'shelter' than when they are outside.

This must be true, because all the daddy long legs in southwest Florida live in my garage. I have not been killing them, the lizards eat them, but they must not have much moisture in them, because I find petrified lizards all the time. That being said the 5 year moving average for rain around has been dropping for a decade. I can now blame the spiders. I have been trying to build a phenomenological theory relating rainfall and the orbit of Jupiter, and now I find it has been the spiders in my garage all along. aarrgg, I better get squashing