I am an 81-year, 11-month-old man, and when in high school in 1953, I was what would be called a “Nerd” today. My 9th-grade physics teacher was Mr. Elmer Ditch, a teacher who greatly affected my life. The most important thing Mr. Ditch taught me was, “It is not important to know everything. It is extremely important to know how to look up and research everything.” Another was to absolutely understand that for every action, there is a reaction. At the time, I was greatly interested in weather and maintained a small weather station at my home.
Mr. Ditch taught me a few simple and immutable facts about our weather and climate. 1. “Today’s sunlight is tonight’s wind and tonight’s wind is tomorrow’s weather.” 2. “Tomorrow’s lower winds are the ball bearings of the upper winds.” 3. “The upper winds create the world’s weather, which becomes our climate.” As an example, he taught about the “Chicago effect.” It was discovered in the 1930s that when the buildings in Chicago began to reach a certain height, the wind was diverted around them and they changed the weather and climate downwind from Chicago for 50 miles.
