When Seasons Change

Forrest M. Mims III

When seasons change is often an ideal time to begin an outdoor science investigation.

Seasons have very different meanings around the world. In the tropics, there are generally two or three seasons. There is a dry season and a wet season.

Some tropical regions add a cool season. Where there is considerable biomass burning during the dry season, some people refer to the dry season as the burning season.

In temperate latitudes, there are usually four distinct seasons: spring, winter, summer and fall.

The changing of the seasons is a good time to begin a science investigation. Citizen scientists in tropical locations can study how plants and animals react to the transitions between the wet and dry seasons. It's also interesting to look at the sometimes dramatic changes in meteorological parameters that occur during these transitions.

In the temperate latitudes, the transition from winter to spring affords the careful observer numerous opportunities to record emerging plants and even events only rarely seen and photographed up close.

People who live in snow country can document the emergence of plants through snow and even study the circumstances. What is it, for example, that allows certain plants to begin growing through a layer of snow before the snow has melted away?

The El Nino winter that has just passed provides interesting opportunities as well. The El Nino has left Southeast Asia with extremely dry conditions. Major fires have occurred, some of which have sent smoke across the Pacific to North America. South Texas often transitions from winter to summer with only a few spring like days. The El Nino has provided Texas with an unusually pleasant spring.

Spring in the temperate latitudes and the arrival of the wet season in the tropics is often accompanied by gigantic clashes in the atmosphere. Warm, moist air rises high into the sky, where it develops into large thunderstorms. Lightning, strong winds and hail are common in many regions. Storm chasing has become a popular pursuit in many areas, and the citizen scientist can add to the knowledge base by both chasing storms and photographing them from the side while also saving radar images of them available on the web.

Finally, there is no better time for students doing science fair projects to begin their investigations than their annual break. Rarely is there much significance in projects completed over a weekend or two. Projects completed over a few months allow far more time for collecting and evaluating data and preparing reports and display reports.

So won't you join me and begin a new science project the next time the seasons offer the opportunity? Just as the leaves were falling last fall, I made a new finding about how sunlight penetrates tree canopies. Before the finding could be tested, all the leaves had fallen. Now the woods at the sun and sky observing station called Geronimo Creek Observatory are in full leaf. I can hardly wait to continue that canopy study!