1 min
Science Says Rainy Weekends are Simply Bad Luck
Beyond bad luck, could there be a reason why recent weekends have been more rainy than the rest of the week? From the start of spring to the end of May, it rained on half, or 10, of 20 weekend days. By comparison, it rained one-third of the 46 workweek days. Newsday interviewed Jase Bernhardt, associate professor of geology, environment, and sustainability, to see if there is a scientific explanation for the frequently soggy Saturdays and Sundays. According to the National Weather Service, data collected over five, 10 and 40 years found that rain was not any more frequent on weekends than weekdays. It also found no statistically significant change in the overall occurrence of rain events. “You try to slice up these data sets in all these different ways, and inevitably, you will find random patterns that at first seem like something meaningful.” But often, he said, “when you peel back the data, look at an appropriate sample size, you realize it goes away, there wasn’t anything actually meaningful here.”
