Phenomenal

 Weather

GREENWICH — The Bruce Museum is preparing to a new exhibition on a familiar topic of conversation: the weather.

Opening March 8 and running through November 30,  “Phenomenal Weather” is a family-friendly exhibition that showcases the astounding variety of weather events that take place around the globe and explores the subject through interactive displays, objects and images.

Eight hands-on displays invite visitors to better understand weather phenomena — from the extreme to the everyday — and the science behind them. The computer activity “Create-a-cane” challenges the user to create the correct environmental conditions to hurl a hurricane toward North America. The mock storm-chasing vehicle offers the sights and sounds of real twisters. Other activities involving air pressure and air currents demonstrate how weather is a response to heat imbalances created by the energy of the sun.

The water cycle, which produces rain, snow and clouds, is another aspect of weather presented in the exhibition. Museumgoers not yet ready for spring can watch a lab-created snowflake grow. Using prisms and mirrors, visitors can try to split light into a rainbow of colors as effectively as Mother Nature. Sky watchers willlearn about cloud patterns and then test their skills in forecasting the weather.

Evidence of past atmospheric conditions is also on display. Geological specimens are testaments to the forcefulness of weather events and their continuity through the history of the planet. The show includes unusual objects such as a Connecticut Valley rock formation that preserves raindrop impressions along with dinosaur tracks, and fulgurites, which are tubes of fused sand and dirt created by lightning strikes.

Fine ash from the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia tells the story of how large volcanic eruptions can impact the atmosphere and weather. The ash of Mount Tambora was caught up in global atmospheric circulation and produced the deep-hued sunsets captured by artists such as J.M.W. Turner. A Turner reproduction as well as rocks from Mount Tambora will be on view.

The same eruption also spewed sulfur creating a sulfuric acid aerosol that cooled the countries surrounding the northern Atlantic Ocean. Connecticut experienced a frost in June 4, 1816, and snowstorms swept through New England and eastern Canada during the “year without a summer.”

Different cultures have produced myths in attempts to explain, predict or control the weather. Ethnological artifacts in the exhibition, including a bronze Zeus hurling a lightning bolt and a clay head of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, demonstrate our human fascination with weather. The display of the Bruce Museum’s groundhog mount represents Candlemas Day, also known as Groundhog Day, which persists in western mythology as a turning point for predicting the end of winter.

Historic meteorological instruments in the exhibition document the expansion of scientific observations of the weather to better understand and predict it. Air temperature, pressure and relative humidity data are fundamental observations acquired through thermometers, barometers and hygrometers.

 In 1870 an agency within the Army Signal Corps provided our nation’s first systematic weather observations, and that agency eventually became the National Weather Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A US Army Signal Corps thermograph, which is an instrument designed to provide a continuous record of temperature data, is on display.

Lenders to the exhibition include the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, the American Museum of Natural History, Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, Harvard Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and private collectors. The exhibition is supported by the Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund and a Committee of Honor.

The Bruce Museum is at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich. General admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, and free for children under five and Bruce Museum members. Admission is free for all visitors on Tuesdays. The museum is located near Interstate 95 Exit 3, and a short walk from the Greenwich train station.

Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday from 1 to 5 pm. Groups of eight or more require advance reservations.

Museum exhibition tours are held Fridays at 12:30 pm. Free, on-site parking is available.

The museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities.

For information, call the museum at 203-869-0376 or visit BruceMuseum.org.