SATURDAY-NIGHT SHOWERS

“The rain it rained every day”. But more at the weekend than on the other days. That, according to Randall Cerveny and Robert Balling, of Arizona State University, is not mere paranoia - at least if you happen to live on the east coast of North America. For their report in this week’s Nature suggests what many, in their heart of hearts, have secretly believed for a long time - that Saturday is the wettest day of the week. On the other hand, it also suggests that if you are suffering a hurricane, the wind will be least blustery on that day.

The link between these two new bits of weather lore seems to be that the end of the week brings worse air pollution than the beginning, and that something in the pollution is affecting the local climate. This idea has been suggested in the past, but Dr. Cerveny and Dr. Balling confirmed it was true by looking at the air quality on Sable Island - an isolated dot in the ocean some 180 kilometers (110 miles) off the coast of Nova Scotia. (...)

The Economist, Randal Cerveny e Robert Balling, August $8^{\text{th}}$ 1998.

Segundo Randal Cerveny e Robert Balling, que crença não pode ser considerada uma mera paranoia?