Mark Your Calendars – National Sky Awareness Week Is Coming
National Sky Awareness Week (SAW) 2022 is on the not-too-distant horizon (April 24-30). As always, the week-long celebration of the sky (clouds, optical phenomena, planets, and stars) affords all an opportunity to appreciate sky beauty, to understand sky and weather processes, and to work together to protect the sky as a natural resource. Our lives from comfort (clothes we wear and heating/cooling systems), to transportation (planes, trains, and automobiles…and more), and to the fruits and vegetables we consume, all depend on the weather and how we address it. And, for weather safety, there’s a potpourri of weather hazards against which we need to prepare (lightning and severe storm safety). Don’t forget that weather can also brighten or darken your mood.
For many of the professions and activities noted above, people use sky and cloud signals to help them know the weather that is coming. Since many school textbooks are playing down conventional weather learning (even removing cloud identification), sky awareness takes on added significance.
Consider using this week as one way to integrate sky awareness into other Earth Day activities that take place around the same time. This includes offering talks to nature centers, schools and home schools, scout troops, museums, and other settings in either in-person or virtual settings. About a month prior to Sky Awareness Week 2022, I provided a program (including sky awareness, weather preparedness, and much more) virtually to a cub scout pack in the Maryland suburbs.
I am working on a series of sky-based weather articles and will feature these on my “lifelong learning” blog site – http://www.weatherworks.com/lifelong-learning-blog during SAW. TV meteorologists and others can draw from these or refer their viewers/listeners to the site to read the articles as their programming and social media presence allows. Everyone can (and should) “look up” during this week to see the sky show unfolding above. My photos used in the articles will be copyrighted; please contact me for permission to use.
Conversely, sky photographs are welcome year-round at www.facebook.com/sky.awareness.week or via e-mail at ccm@weatherworks.com. Should I wish to use any, I would contact the provider (if I am able to do so) for needed permissions. Hence, please, provide contact information to me via e-mail (learning@weatherworks.com). You can also ask me questions about the sky and weather processes at the same e-mail address.
Only a few days ago, a friend took a sky photo and sent it to me, inquiring about the clouds (Fig. 1 above – upper image). She noted that she had never seen such well-lit, bright white, clouds before. Here’s her photo (used with permission).
So, please enjoy Sky Awareness Week 2022, keep watching the sky year-round, and use those cloud messaages to your advantage.
© 2022 H. Michael Mogil
Originally posted 4/1/22
* The National Weather Association Digital Seal (NWA-DS) is awarded to individuals who pass stringent meteorological testing and evaluation of written weather content. H. Michael Mogil was awarded the second such seal and is a strong advocate for its use by weather bloggers.