I learned this trick reading Backpacker Magazine years ago while waiting for an air taxi flight into the Nahanni River. It really works.
Make a cup of coffee. I like to add cream and sugar since it makes the bubbles easier to see but black coffee is fine. Hot tea or hot cocoa will work too.
Make a cup of coffee. I like to add cream and sugar since it makes the bubbles easier to see but black coffee is fine. Hot tea or hot cocoa will work too.
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Signing UpStep 1: Watch the bubbles
When you pour the coffee into your cup, watch the bubbles.
If the bubbles move to the edge of the cup rather quickly, that's a good sign. Expect clear skies for the next 12 hours.
If the bubbles hang around in the center of the cup, get out your rain gear. You can expect rain in 12 hours.
If the bubbles slowly move to the edge of the cup, you may get a bit of weather, but it should be clearing in a few hours.
If you've managed to make a cup without bubbles, flop a spoonful of coffee back into your cup and make some more bubbles.
If the bubbles move to the edge of the cup rather quickly, that's a good sign. Expect clear skies for the next 12 hours.
If the bubbles hang around in the center of the cup, get out your rain gear. You can expect rain in 12 hours.
If the bubbles slowly move to the edge of the cup, you may get a bit of weather, but it should be clearing in a few hours.
If you've managed to make a cup without bubbles, flop a spoonful of coffee back into your cup and make some more bubbles.
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P.S. The coffee trick works best if you can get exactly 42 bubbles ...
It works 100% :)
On the other hand, I've had a couple of failures since I moved close to the shore of Lake Superior a couple of years ago. Seems like sometimes the predicted rain stays out over the lake and doesn't make it to shore.
You're supposed not to stir your coffee, is it ? Just leave it still and observe the phenomena. I don't catch the theory of atmosphere pressure pushing significantly
on coffee surface, Ok it does but that's sounds like atmosphere blowing more or less in the centre of the cup and why not the reverse , I mean some kind of blow from side to center or the like. What about influence of air % humidity?
Stirring tends to either move the bubbles to the outside edge or congregate them in the center vortex, so that's a no-no. You do run into problems when the coffee doesn't cooperate and you have to use your spoon to make bubbles. A dip and splash technique usually avoids excessive manual bubble movements.
Barometric pressure may be affected by humidity, so that could affect the bubble reading. To avoid that you could dispense the coffee into a clear wet bulb I suppose. Don't know, just slinging out ideas, but some of this stuff can make you go psychro (sic) on the meter scale.
So far the predictions of the cup have been ringing true, I drink a lot of coffee...
The weather report agrees too, so it may be wrong yet, it's not right often...
Expect colder than average temperatures and above average snowfall.
I would have a hard time making up a more inaccurate forecast.
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- Oh wait, I've removed the simplicity of it.... lol
I can only vouch for coffee, since that's the beverage I usually imbibe every day at home or in the woods and I'm used to how the bubbles flow in my cuppa.
Different fluids may not react the same way. They may have different miscibility properties, different triple points, different electrical conductivity, different surface tensions - you get the idea. All those factors could change the capillary wave dynamics and throw your readings off by hours.
Isn't it amazing how much pseudo-science you can dig up in 5 minutes on wiki? :-)
But a cuppa is sometimes handier than your gizmo.
Carly simon was ahead of us all:-)
;)