by Anura Guruge
on July 12, 2021
I am sure we have all seen these ‘weather boxes’ over the years. I kind of knew that there function was to protect the meteorological instruments inside. I had not given it much thought. I had no idea that these boxes had an official name, viz., ‘Stevenson Screen‘. I had also never heard that Robert Louis Stevenson had such a gifted & famous dad. I was kind of chuffed to learn all of this. Hence why I am sharing it with you.
I found all of this earlier today when I went looking for the exact reason why we NEVER (ever) quote weather temperature in terms of: ‘in the sun‘. It always has to be: ‘in the shade‘. That is because a thermometer directly exposed to the sun collects solar radiation & thus reports a temperature much higher than that of the air around it. Since we (as humans) are not made out of the same material as a thermometer, we can’t claim that our bodies must also be as hot as the temp. registered by a thermometer exposed to the sun.
All of this because I saw a post yesterday, on Facebook, where the person was citing ‘in the sun’ readings to show how it had been in Saudi Arabia that day. I am glad that this post aroused my curiosity.
