Myths & Misconceptions

Science can be hard. It can be confusing and that can lead to misunderstanding and miscommunication. We have collected some common myths and misconceptions as well as explanations of the science behind them.

Myth: You can tell an earthquake is coming when there is “earthquake weather”.

FACT
There is no such thing as “earthquake weather”. There is actually an equal probability of an earthquake happening on hot, cold, rainy, or snowy day. Read More.


Myth: You can stop an extreme storm by disrupting its energy and circulation with a nuclear bomb.

FACT
The amount of power generated by an average hurricane is actually so great that a bomb (even a nuclear bomb) would not have much of an effect, aside from possibly turning it into a radioactive storm. Read More.


Myth: It’s really cold outside, so the climate cannot be warming.

FACT
Weather is the short-term conditions in the atmosphere (like a snow storm or a sunny day). Weather has short‐term fluctuations.  For instance, it can be cloudy in the morning, raining in the afternoon, and clear at night. But the average weather over the course of years reveals a pattern, a long-term trend we refer to as the climate.

Climate is the average of weather over a long period (around 30 years). In other words, climate is the weather you expect based on past experiences—like how people in the northeast or midwestern parts of the U.S. expect the summer to be hot and humid and the winter to be cold and snowy.

While we continue to have cold days and snow storms, we still have a warming climate. A warming climate means less cold days on average (and more hot days too). Read More.


Myth: Extreme weather can occur with equal intensity and frequency anywhere around the world - all parts of the globe are subject to the same level of extreme weather (though storm events may be different).

FACT
Certain conditions like hot and cold air meeting (i.e., fronts), changes in air mass circulation, or changes to the jet stream are necessary for extreme weather to occur. Further, factors like temperature, air pressure, and precipitation can influence the severity and frequency of extreme weather events.

These conditions and factors naturally vary across the globe, with some regions being more stable than others. For instance, fewer changes in these factors occur closer to the equator than the poles because the equator tends to receive consistent amounts of solar radiation, whereas the poles tilt toward and away from the sun throughout the year, causing more variability in temperature and pressure and giving us seasons. Read More.

While these factors will also dictate the type of extreme weather to occur (e.g., blizzard vs hurricane), the fact that these factors and conditions fluctuate more extremely at the poles suggests that these regions have the potential for a greater frequency of more severe storms. Read More.


Myth: Meteorologists on TV use fake maps to show upcoming weather predictions.

FACT
Meteorologists do use special maps to convey likely future weather events and, while they can be a little confusing, they are certainly not fake! Each icon represents a key weather component that helps explain where changing weather may be coming from. For instance, the blue jagged line is used to represent a cold front, which is bringing cold air. Check out this video clip to learn what each of these weather symbols means.

Thunderstorms

Myth: When you’re in a car, the rubber tires protect you from lightning.

FACT
It is actually the metal roof and sides of the car that protect you from the lightning. The metal in the car is a conductor. Electricity takes the path of least resistance which allows the electricity to move down the sides of the car, leaving the inside of the car safe from electricity. If you are in a fiberglass framed car or convertible, you do not have adequate protection from lightning. Read More.


Myth: Lightning never strikes the same place twice.

FACT
On average, the Empire State Building gets hit 23 times in one year. Lightning will often strike the same place—especially if it's tall, pointy, and isolated (which is why lightning tends to be attracted to the tallest point in an area). This answer came from NOAA’s Lightning 101 FAQ. If you want to learn more lightning myths, check out Weather.gov’s lightning myths: Read More.


Myth: There’s no way to know how far away you are from a lightening strike without complex scientific equipment.

FACT
Because sound travels slower than light, you can easily estimate your distance to a lightning strike with some simple math. Once you see a flash of lightning, count the number of seconds until you hear the crack of thunder, then divide this measure of time by five—it takes the sound of thunder about 5 seconds to travel a mile. The result is the number of miles away you are from the lightning strike!

For instance, if it took 10 seconds to hear thunder after you saw a streak of lightning, then you are 2 miles away from where just it hit (10 seconds/5 seconds per mile = 2 miles). Read More.


Myth: “Thunderstorms and tornadoes always move from west to east.”

FACT
“More often than not, thunderstorms move from west to east. Conditions in the atmosphere dictate how and where storms will move, and it can be in any direction. Tornadoes have been known to act erratic, and can change directions and speed very quickly.”

For this quoted myth and other myths related to thunderstorms, tornados and safety: Read More.


Myth: The biggest problem with hurricanes is wind speed.

FACT
Although windspeed is dangerous, about 90% of deaths from hurricanes come from water and not wind. Some storms may have large storm surges which cause flooding from the ocean. In addition, slow moving storms can have significant rainfall that causes dangerous flooding. Read More.

Nor’easter

Myth: Nor’easters are just hurricanes with snow.

FACT
Nor’easters and hurricanes are similar in that they are both large cyclone-type (fast winds spiraling around a low pressure center) storms. Nor’easters form over the northeast Atlantic and bring cold arctic air with them, while hurricanes form over warm, tropical waters. While it is true that Nor’easters bring snow and hurricanes don’t, there are some other notable differences between these storm types. First is that Nor’easters can be significantly larger than hurricanes, possibly spanning over a thousand miles instead of a couple hundred, which means they can impact a greater land area at one time. Second is that Nor’easters are typically a lot slower moving than hurricanes, meaning they can linger over an area longer causing more destruction. Both Nor’easters and hurricanes can bring destructive forces from strong winds and flooding.

For more information on Nor’easters and how they compare to hurricanes, Read More.


Myth: Nor’easters always happen in the winter.

FACT
Nor’easters can happen any time during the year but are most often seen between September and April. In the winter, nor’easters are typically responsible for large amounts of snow, while in the spring, fall, and summer they may just bring large amounts of rain. 

For more information on Nor’easters: Read More.

Heatwaves

Myth: Heat waves aren’t as dangerous as other extreme weather events, like tornadoes.

FACT
While certainly less dramatic, heat waves cause nearly twice as many fatalities as tornadoes each year in the US (based on a 30 year average), more than any other extreme event.

To learn more about weather related injury statistics,

To read more about how heat waves are influenced by a warming climate, Read More.

Myth: Only old or sick people need to be worried about their health during a heatwave.

FACT
During a heatwave, the human body works to maintain an internal body temperature around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit by sweating. When the body releases water through sweat glands and it evaporates off the skin, the process releases excess heat. It is true that older people and those with certain health issues may be more vulnerable during a heat wave, but it doesn’t mean that a healthy person can’t experience any negative health effects. Serious reactions to prolonged heat—like dehydration—can affect anyone and may not be noticeable right away. For more information, Read More. For more information on heatwaves and safety, Check out Ready.gov.

Heat Transfer

Myth: Drinking hot liquids on a hot day will make you hotter.

FACT
Drinking a hot drink on a hot day typically causes you to sweat (researchers aren’t exactly sure why). Sweating cools you down because when sweat evaporates, the energy (heat) is transferred to the air. If, however, you drink your hot drink when it is humid, sweat evaporates more slowly, so our sweat cannot cool us down as fast. That’s why we also feel warmer in high humidity. Read More.


Myth: Fans cool us down by blowing cold air.

FACT
Fans only move air around. They don’t change the temperature of the air.

Additionally, fans do not always cool us down. Fans can make us feel cool by convective heat loss, which is a way of saying that air movement (convection) helps our sweat evaporate faster (heat loss). However, if humidity levels are low and temperatures are very high (higher than the temperature of your skin), your body sweats less and the fan can actually increase the rate at which the heat from the hotter air transfers to your cooler body.

Additionally, the energy used by fans produces heat, so a fan can make you feel cooler while still heating up a room. The same is true for someone using a hand fan to fan themselves—the energy used will increase their body temperature, but their heat loss due to increased sweat evaporation may cool them down overall, depending on how well the fan moves the air around. Fans keep use cool depending on a number of factors, which you can read about at health.ny.gov. Read More.


Myth: Heat is a substance.

FACT
“Heat is energy. The Universe is made up of matter and energy. Matter is made up of atoms and molecules (groupings of atoms) and energy causes the atoms and molecules to always be in motion—either bumping into each other or vibrating back and forth. The motion of atoms and molecules creates a form of energy called heat or thermal energy which is present in all matter.” Watch Video Here.


Myth: Heat and cold are different things.

FACT
Cold is the absence of heat. Heat is caused by the motion of vibrating atoms or molecules (the building blocks of all stuff). Cold is used to describe things that are moving at a lower energy level. Watch Video.


Myth: Cold is transferred from one object to another.

FACT
Cold objects are just moving at a lower energy level than hot ones (see above myths for explanation). It is heat energy that gets transferred, and it always moves from the warmer object to the cooler one. When ice in a water glass melts, a “transfer of cold” does not occur. Instead, the water cools down because the heat from the warmer water is transferred to the cooler object (the ice). In the case of ice, heat transfer causes the ice to melt. Read More.


Myth: Objects that keep things warm (like sweaters or mittens) are sources of heat.

FACT
Objects actually keep things warm by trapping heat—something we call “insulating”. Objects insulate by stopping the flow of heat energy through them. Plastic, glass, and air are all good insulators (most reusable coffee containers have a layer of air between the lining and the outside of the cup to keep your drink hotter or cooler for longer).   

Sweaters and jackets keep us warm because they trap air in between the layers of our clothing, reducing the amount of heat that is lost. The more layers of clothing we have on (and therefore small layers of air trapped between), the warmer we can stay. Read More.


Myth: Rough ocean conditions far offshore generate strong winds, which reach coastlines as sea breezes.

FACT
Rough seas do not generate wind. Wind is simply the movement of air from one location to another (we feel it rushing past us due to friction). It is more likely that strong winds (perhaps from a storm) contribute to rough seas and not the other way around.

What causes sea breezes then? Well, air actually only moves as wind to fill a space; similar to water filling in all the nooks and crannies that it flows past. We say that wind is moving from an area of high pressure (i.e., lots of air molecules) to an area of low pressure (i.e., far fewer air molecules). In other words, a sea breeze is air that moves from over the ocean (where there’s a higher pressure) onto the land (where there’s a lower pressure).

The reason for this movement of air is that when the sun rises in the morning and starts to heat the earth, the land will warm up faster than the ocean. As a result, the air over the land will be warmer, causing it to rise higher in the atmosphere. This process creates a void below that the air over the ocean rushes to fill in, thus giving us a sea breeze.

Energy

Myth: Things “use up” energy.

FACT
Energy cannot be made or destroyed, but it can be changed from one form to another. Some forms of energy that are found with storms include: kinetic energy (energy of motion), light energy, sound energy, thermal (heat) energy, and electrical energy. As storms progress, their energy is constantly being changed between these forms. Read More here, and if you want more detailed information Learn More Here.


Myth: Power and energy are the same thing. A storm with a lot of energy means that it has a lot of power.

FACT
While we tend to use both words, power and energy, to mean similar things in everyday language, they are actually two different concepts in science!

Energy is the ability to do work. The easiest type of energy to think of is kinetic energy or the energy of motion. Storms tend to have a lot of kinetic energy with the motion of water, water vapor and other atmospheric gases; they can also have sound and light energy (thunder and lightning for example). By expending this energy, these particles are doing work.

Power however, is essentially how much energy is transferred (or how much work is done) over a given period of time. Energy is an amount, but power is a rate.

Some simplified examples: Imagine two weightlifters that are both lifting 100 lbs above their heads. In this simple example, the two weightlifters are doing the same amount of work. If one of the weightlifters gets the 100lbs above his head in 1 second while the other takes 3 seconds, that means the first weightlifter is doing the work three times faster (only taking one second instead of three). The two weightlifters have the same energy but the faster lifter has more power!

Have you ever seen someone light a trail of gunpowder on fire in a cartoon or movie? The gunpowder usually burns slowly while releasing light, heat, and sound energy. If you put that same amount of gunpowder into a sealed container like a firecracker and lit that instead it will explode! All of the gunpowder is releasing that same amount of energy, except all at once. Which scenario would have more power? Read More.