Q: I live 2 miles north of Georgia Tech and 16 miles northeast of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. For at least 15 years I have placed two buckets, with perfectly vertical walls, to measure rainfall. A couple of weeks ago, I recorded 0.75 inches of rain for two nights. The AJC listed 0.01 inches of rainfall for April. Could all the activity at the airport cause less rainfall to fall on their measuring instrument?
—Jim Rust, Atlanta
A: Airports and aircraft don't influence weather systems, Glenn Burns, chief meteorologist for Channel 2 Action News, told Q&A on the News in an email. He added that the "nature of spring rainfall is scattered in nature," meaning that it can vary greatly from location to location. Also, "buckets are not used to record rainfall. You would need a rain gauge to get an accurate measurement."
Q: For 30-plus years I have relied on the tone at the top of the hour on WSB Radio. Suddenly, it has disappeared. No one seems able to tell me why. Any ideas?
—Roland Bates, Milton
A: A machine generates the tone to mark the top of the hour on WSB's AM frequency, which is 750, Condace Pressley, the assistant program director, told Q&A on the News in an email. The tone has not gone away on 750 AM, she said, adding that Charles Kinney, the station's chief engineer, told her the machine has not been set to make the tone on 95.5, the station's FM frequency. "Our engineers do plan to bring the tone over to 95.5 FM at some point," Pressley said.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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