Clear Blue Sky

Kind of an off topic question, but I remember that as a kid (30+ years ago) that our summers never had clear blue skies. Once it got hot and humid, every day was either cloudy or so hazy that we never saw blue. We used to go on vacations every year to Northern Michigan, and one of my greatest delights was seeing blue sky again. Now, despite the same heat and humidity, it it isn't cloudy, the sky is still blue. Maybe not as blue as on a fall or winter day, but still blue. Is this the result of decades under The Clean Air Act?

Scott

No, it's the terrible drought we're in--no clouds, no rain.

Scott, nothing is as blue as the skies in Utah (except by the Navajo Power Plant) or the Rockies. I think it is mostly due to elevation and some with the dryness of the air. Maybe Ohio has been pushed up by a tremendous uplift. I would guess lack of humidity.

Hmm...along the lines of some griping I've heard lately.......could it be because there's a lot less of those delta insignias flying around OH?

Soon we'll hear complaints from those who claim it's a plot to cause more dermatological problems due to no barriers on the sun's rays.

Bad mood, Scott? Do we need to find you a new Carpinus, Acer, or Hot Chick to distract you?

No! I'm happy enough and this was a serious question! I'm wondering if the air really is cleaner now than it was in the 1960s, or if at least particulate counts are down. It wouldn't be unheard of. Those were the days before chimney scrubbers, catalytic converters, and economy cars (although pre-SUV). There was a lot more manufacturing back then. I've seen films of jet aircraft taking off leaving thick black trails of smoke that is simply appalling. My own elementary school was still burning coal and all paper waste for heat.

Scott

Funny you ask that, Scott, because I was thinking just the opposite of the summer sky here in New Jersey, as opposed to the sky I grew up with in South Carolina in the 1960's and 70's.

Sky here in summer often seems yellowish, thick, dirty. Ew. I think sometimes I can taste it and it doesn't taste like fresh green salad either.

It goes back to blue in fall. I love fall.

I grew up in a very industrial area. I remember lying in my bed at night listening to the GE factory testing their jet engines, the sounds of the Ford plant, the railroad yard. Down the valley out of earshot, there was Proctor and Gamble, a fertilizer factory, all kinds of milling machine shops, rendering plants, and plenty more that I cannot remember. Most of all that is closed now, or their operations are greatly reduces. Those that remain, their emissions are greatly reduced. The change is significant.

Scott

Your question made me think of my childhood in Oklahoma. Nothing but big, blue sky for miles. I really miss it here on the coast of New England, with fog and smog and even the clouds are different- not puffy, but streaky and flat.

Nope, MI keeps OH AND IN out of the river and PA keeps the skies blue down here in the Valley. Maybe WV, a little.

I grew up in Cleveland with the steel mills and burning Cuyahoga River in the 60's. I have seen significant changes in the air quality there, even before the steel mills closed. The flats around the steel mills used to look and smell like Hades (literally) . . . sulferous clouds, flames shooting skyward from chimneys, and nothing green anywhere.

Where I live now the river is crystal clear and designated swimmable, fishable, though in the sixties it had no wildlife and ran different colors on different days depending on what colors the tanneries and mills were using.

The clean air & water acts have made huge differences. Now if we could just cut down on the emissions that cause acid rain, our plants would be happier, at least in the NE.

One thing back east is that there are no forest fires out here in the Rockies. They have started in April in 2001-2004. the last couple of years have had good spring rain. and the snow pack has been improved = No forest fires. Montana has the bluest cobalt skies except for an after rain sky in Seattle.

"the bluest skies you've ever seen...in Seattle." Who was that? Bobby something.

Scott

Goldsboro?

The TV show was about the logger guys who shipped women to seattle to grow it. I can't remember any singer names.

Bobby Sherman. I remember that show....