Where Does the Smell of Rain Come From?
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[MUSIC] You've fired up the grill, set up the badminton net, are those dark clouds on the horizon? Don't check your phone, your nose knows! [MUSIC] Our noses can detect up to a trillion different scents, and many of them are deeply tied to our memories and our emotions. Like your grandma’s house, your first dog, or . . . the smell of rain. Storm winds carry an orchestra of separate smells, but the earthy odor that precedes a storm can be traced to three chemical sources. Before a thunderstorm, you’re probably smelling ozone, which interestingly gets its name from the Greek word meaning “to smell”. The electrical charge of lightning high up in approaching storm clouds splits oxygen gas into separate atoms, some of those can reform into ozone....
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[MUSIC] You've fired up the grill, set up the badminton net, are those dark clouds on the horizon? Don't check your phone, your nose knows! [MUSIC] Our noses can detect up to a trillion different scents, and many of them are deeply tied to our memories and our emotions. Like your grandma’s house, your first dog, or . . . the smell of rain. Storm winds carry an orchestra of separate smells, but the earthy odor that precedes a storm can be traced to three chemical sources. Before a thunderstorm, you’re probably smelling ozone, which interestingly gets its name from the Greek word meaning “to smell”. The electrical charge of lightning high up in approaching storm clouds splits oxygen gas into separate atoms, some of those can reform into ozone....
