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The science behind how forests impact weather is still developing, so I can’t make wild claims like I want to. Yet the evidence is extremely compelling. Trees s

The science behind how forests impact weather is still developing, so I can’t make wild claims like I want to. Yet the evidence is extremely compelling. Trees seem to induce rain, reduce turbulence from winds, and as this article mentions, cool the air far more than we thought. Trees seem to be—unsurprisingly—specialist organisms in the art of maximizing local hydrological features. They help create wetter environments so more trees can live there, and things can get a little more wet still, for more trees, then more water, and so on. The research I’ve read is mostly along the lines of “we’ve observed these really interesting patterns and we suspect these are the underlying mechanisms”, but as I recall, proving the cause and effect of such large scale phenomenons isn’t trivial. I’m also not someone who researches this stuff, so my take on it is essentially irrelevant. The bottom line is: lots of evidence and research supports your observation, and it’s an extremely interesting field of research. I think it’s the key to making life better for a lot of life on the planet.

bob1029 1y ago
> reduce turbulence from winds I'm convinced this is a very strong effect. The forest definitely protected my home from some nasty windstorms we've had. Out toward the lake where there is less coverage, essentially everyone was knocked off the grid for a whole day while I was unaffected - Despite having my power being delivered by similar overhead lines that follow a very narrow clearing through the middle of the forest. You'd think it would be a shooting gallery but it's the opposite thing. Isolated trees seem way more lethal to grid infrastructure.
- mrmlz 1y ago
  I mean... this cannot be a surprise to anyone that a physical object affects wind?
  - BirAdam 1y ago
    Farmers in the Great Plains have been making wind shields for their lands with trees for a long time.
    - aaronbaugher 1y ago
      When you've lived in the country most of your life, it's weird when you hear people discover basic things like windbreaks or the fact that tree shade is cooler than other shade. My great-grandparents would have said, "Well, duh."
      - steve_adams_86 1y ago
        Well, what we're talking about isn't micro, local-scale effects but more like climate and weather. I agree, those things are totally obvious, but it isn't always obvious what they mean at broader scales. Even some of the obvious local effects can totally transform once they culminate, leading to non-obvious results of very obvious local properties of trees.
    - steve_adams_86 1y ago
      These shields are slightly different from what's happening on the weather-system scale. Those winds are low to the ground, and when you obstruct them, the wind is deflected upward and diffused by the trees absorbing some (a very tiny amount) of the wind's energy. So it's a highly local effect. Forests can also modulate properties of the atmosphere around them, which can do various things like alter cloud formation or even stimulate rain. Rain stimulation is still be studied as I recall, but it has huge implications if it's true.
  - steve_adams_86 1y ago
    It might be a surprise when looking at the stratification of the atmosphere, where winds can occur, the depth of the atmosphere, and how tiny trees are on that scale. On one hand, the mechanism seems readily apparent. On the other, it's also astounding. It's not just that the trees create physical disruption with their own physical bodies, but also through how they modify the properties of the atmosphere above and around them. That's incredible. They transport immense amounts of water into the atmosphere.
d4mi3n 1y ago
There's been a lot of study on this topic which is interesting! As you say, they collect moisture in a lot of ways. Part of this is done by the structure of the tree [1] (the surface area of the leaves is surprisingly large and catches a lot of moisture and other particulates in the air), rain drops hitting tree leaves cause droplets to break into a fog or mist, and some varieties of trees found in rainforests will also release various chemicals and compounds [2] that can encourage cloud formation and rainfall. It's fascinating stuff! 1. How Trees Bring Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8ds4BiG1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8ds4BiG1A 2. Amazon Seeds Its Own Rain: https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-seeds-its-own-rain https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-seeds-its-own...

bob1029 1y ago

> reduce turbulence from winds I'm convinced this is a very strong effect. The forest definitely protected my home from some nasty windstorms we've had. Out toward the lake where there is less coverage, essentially everyone was knocked off the grid for a whole day while I was unaffected - Despite having my power being delivered by similar overhead lines that follow a very narrow clearing through the middle of the forest. You'd think it would be a shooting gallery but it's the opposite thing. Isolated trees seem way more lethal to grid infrastructure.

mrmlz 1y ago
I mean... this cannot be a surprise to anyone that a physical object affects wind?
- BirAdam 1y ago
  Farmers in the Great Plains have been making wind shields for their lands with trees for a long time.
  - aaronbaugher 1y ago
    When you've lived in the country most of your life, it's weird when you hear people discover basic things like windbreaks or the fact that tree shade is cooler than other shade. My great-grandparents would have said, "Well, duh."
    - steve_adams_86 1y ago
      Well, what we're talking about isn't micro, local-scale effects but more like climate and weather. I agree, those things are totally obvious, but it isn't always obvious what they mean at broader scales. Even some of the obvious local effects can totally transform once they culminate, leading to non-obvious results of very obvious local properties of trees.
  - steve_adams_86 1y ago
    These shields are slightly different from what's happening on the weather-system scale. Those winds are low to the ground, and when you obstruct them, the wind is deflected upward and diffused by the trees absorbing some (a very tiny amount) of the wind's energy. So it's a highly local effect. Forests can also modulate properties of the atmosphere around them, which can do various things like alter cloud formation or even stimulate rain. Rain stimulation is still be studied as I recall, but it has huge implications if it's true.
- steve_adams_86 1y ago
  It might be a surprise when looking at the stratification of the atmosphere, where winds can occur, the depth of the atmosphere, and how tiny trees are on that scale. On one hand, the mechanism seems readily apparent. On the other, it's also astounding. It's not just that the trees create physical disruption with their own physical bodies, but also through how they modify the properties of the atmosphere above and around them. That's incredible. They transport immense amounts of water into the atmosphere.

d4mi3n 1y ago

There's been a lot of study on this topic which is interesting! As you say, they collect moisture in a lot of ways. Part of this is done by the structure of the tree [1] (the surface area of the leaves is surprisingly large and catches a lot of moisture and other particulates in the air), rain drops hitting tree leaves cause droplets to break into a fog or mist, and some varieties of trees found in rainforests will also release various chemicals and compounds [2] that can encourage cloud formation and rainfall. It's fascinating stuff! 1. How Trees Bring Water: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8ds4BiG1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY8ds4BiG1A 2. Amazon Seeds Its Own Rain: https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-seeds-its-own-rain https://www.science.org/content/article/amazon-seeds-its-own...