The Green Girl went on a short run on the Shoreline Pedestrian Bikepath last night.
With the recent erratic Southern California weather, the sky has been filled with visually interesting cloud formations.
As I ran along the ocean, I stared up at the sky. I recalled a recent NPR segment with NPR's science correspondent, Robert Krulwich, 'How much does a hurricane weigh?'.
The subject matter expert was Andy Heymsfield from the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
In order to illustrate how much a hurricane weighs, Heymsfield suggested using units of elephants for the measurement. Four ton elephants, to be exact.
Heymsfield explained a small cloud would be the size of a hundred elephants. He said clouds look deceivingly small in comparison to their true size.
Heymsfield went on to say that a cumula-nimbus storm cloud absorbs the moisture equivalent of 500 elephants per second.
I learned clouds are dynamic and constantly absorbing and dissipating.
Ever since I heard that NPR clip, I look at clouds with a whole new respect.
