| OCR Text |
Show Little Known Facts-? About The llfeatheftiS Did you know that you can be your own weatherman? weather-man? You can often make accurate weather predictions simply by observing the clouds in the sky. Have you ever seen clouds that are tall and massive, mas-sive, resembling cauliflowers? cauliflow-ers? Those are cumulo-nimbus formations, the "thun-derheads" "thun-derheads" of summer. Sighting Sight-ing these clouds is a sure sign that rain is due soon, coming usually from the southwest by west to north. Here's a more unusual means of predicting the weather one that requires a sharp ear. A chirping cricket can act as a living thermometer. It chirps faster fast-er as the temperature rises. On warm days, just add 37 to the number of chirps in 15 seconds, and that will about equal the temperature. The weather affects how fast our crops grow. It may even affect our personalities. But did you know that it also affects the state of our roaas? The potholes you see on our nation's highways are not caused by heavy r trucks. Our highways are built to carry truck traffic. Potholes are caused by a combination of rain, snow, ice and shifts in temperature. Here's how a pothole forms. A crack develops in the pavement, due to old age, the weather and sometimes some-times poor construction materials. ma-terials. If it rains or snows, water enters the crack area. Freezing can expand the crack area and knock small pieces of pavement loose. Traffic naturally enlarges the crack areas, more water enters and the cycle repeats. re-peats. As traffic continues, the pothole becomes fully developed. According to the American Ameri-can Trucking Associations, tests on highway pavement performance show that our nation's highway designers have met the traffic requirement re-quirement challenge better than they have been able to meet the environmental challenges. Meeting those challenges could keep weather from being a foe to our nation's highways. |
