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Guaranteed Human.

When I moved to Southern California, I felt this immediate, immense relief.

Not just because I was free of the tyranny of outside clothing, but because I was released from the

anxiety of not knowing if the weather was going to ruin my plans. Were you planning an outdoor

birthday party for your toddler? No need to make backup plans just in case it rains. Do you need to

drive a few hours away? No problem. You don't have to worry that a snowstorm might make the roads

impassable. Because I could predict the weather myself, since it was the same every single day.

But not all of us are lucky enough to live in such calm climb, so it's still very important

that we try to anticipate storms so that the less fortunate among us can be prepared. It's not often

described as important physics, but predicting the weather is one of physics's great success stories.

John Martin, professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, told me that weather predictions are,

quote, the most unheralded scientific advance of the second half of the 20th century. If you keep score

every day, I can't believe how well we predict the weather three to five days in advance. In 30 years,

we've gone from predictions from one to two days to now five to seven days. We have made

unbelievable progress. So how does that all work? What is the physics underlying the weather? Why has it gotten

better and what can we expect into the future? I talk to Professor Martin and my good friend

Professor Jane Baldwin here at UC Irvine about how the weather all works. So we'll dig into

all of that in today's episode dedicated to all of y'all who still experience regular weather.

Welcome to Daniel and Kelly's extraordinarily sunny universe.

Hello, I'm Kelly Weiner-Smith.

I study parasites and space, and I love rainy days.

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