Trying to find out whether ability to smell rain goes with age

[PILOON]

LOL, I live lakeside.
When the waves go from right to left it rains!
When dead on or left to right =fair weather.
Have lived here since '57 and it has always held true.

But then the art of weather forecasting has greatly improved over the years.

Gone is the weather man simply rolling up his sleeves not knowing his azz from his elbow.

 

[/pine]

...Before the rain begins, one of the first odors you may notice as winds pick up and clouds roll in is a sweet, pungent zing in your nostrils. That's the sharp, fresh aroma of ozone a form of oxygen whose name comes from the Greek word ozein (to smell). Tropospheric chemist Louisa Emmons at the National Center for Atmospheric Research explains that ozone emanates from fertilizers and pollutants as well as natural sources. An electrical charge from lightning or a man-made source such as an electrical generator splits atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen molecules into separate atoms. Some of these recombine into nitric oxide, and this in turn reacts with other atmospheric chemicals, occasionally producing a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms熔zone, or O3. (Most atmospheric oxygen is made up of two atoms O2.) The scent of ozone heralds stormy weather because a thunderstorm's downdrafts carry O3 from higher altitudes to nose level....

Storm Scents: It's True, You Can Smell Oncoming Summer Rain - Scientific American

 

[tallyho8]

Tomorrow I'll go out and check and see if I can smell any rain coming since the forecast is that we are going to have 2 hurricanes hit us back to back. :shocked:

 

[Gale Hawkins]

If I find myself losing my keen sense of smell I am going to call a family meeting and give them a heads up on one potential meaning.

An impaired sense of smell can signal cognitive decline, but 'smell training' could help

"In the absence of a known medical cause, an impaired sense of smell can be a predictor of cognitive decline. Older people who have difficulty identifying common odours have been estimated to be twice as likely to develop dementia in five years as those with no significant smell loss."

 

[johnnyvol]

What about the dew evaporating off the grass as the first rays of sunshine beam down? To me, that's the sweetest smell ever.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Years ago our phone number was close to the number you call for weather.
One morning phone rings at 4 a.m., we were sound asleep.
Guy asks "Wondering what the weather is since we're going hunting".
I asked if he had a window..."yes" he replied.
"Well stick your head out. If you pull it back and it's white it's snowing, hair all messed up it's windy, wet it's raining, if you see anything it's sunny".
He was laughing when I slammed the phone.

 

[Richard]

So all of you bozo's know..... when I was in the 6th grade, I made a comment about smelling the rain.... the teacher essentially tried to humiliate me in front of the entire class, totally assuring me that rain has NO smell and NOBODY can smell the coming rain.

Mrs. Hunter, 6th Grade, Lincoln Elementary School, somewhere around around 1972, now you know.

 

[MossRoad]

So all of you bozo's know..... when I was in the 6th grade, I made a comment about smelling the rain.... the teacher essentially tried to humiliate me in front of the entire class, totally assuring me that rain has NO smell and NOBODY can smell the coming rain.

Mrs. Hunter, 6th Grade, Lincoln Elementary School, somewhere around around 1972, now you know.

I've had a few notably great teachers over the years and remember them all fondly. However, we had a few nuns that would just have slapped you in the back of the head with their pointer.

 

[Jim Nelson]

If all you lose as you age is the ability to smell rain count yourself as very, very, lucky.

 

[/pine]

Growing up on the W. FL Gulf coast...there were sometimes severe algae blooms (red tide)...it killed a lot of fish...I mean a lot of fish...in the afternoons during some of the storms the rain would smell terribly like rotting fish...well inland of the beach or waterways etc...