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Name: Linda B.
Status: other
Grade: other
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 8/2/2005
Question:
Wondering how the little figurines in antique weather stations (barometers) work? Specifically, on a cuckoo clock, there is a man and a woman, when the woman comes out it indicates good weather, when the man comes out it indicates bad weather? These are balanced. How do these work?

Replies:
Dear Linda-

These "weather indicators" on the cuckoo clocks work by atmospheric pressure. There is a little barometer inside the clock. High pressure usually is associated with fair weather, and low pressure is related to stormy weather. So, when the barometer falls, the stormy indicator comes out, and when it rises, the fair weather indicator appears.

Wendell Bechtold, meteorologist
Forecaster, National Weather Service
Weather Forecast Office, St. Louis, MO

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