The Weather According to Mr. Mao

Just about every day when we first get in the car, Mr. Mao will tell us what to expect with the weather. The choices are:

The weather is very bad today.
The weather is very good today.
It will rain today (or tomorrow, or for 2 more days).

M and I have discussed his weather reporting skills and have never been sure where he gets his information from or how he decides. Most of the time, he's right! Sometimes, however, he says the weather is very good today when we can clearly see a yellow haze settled over the city. So we have continued to wonder about his weather report.

Until yesterday.

We were driving to school and I said, "The air is very bad today". I had even done a test. We were approaching an exit that I knew had several signs warning of the distance to the exit. At the first sign, 1.5 km from the exit, I looked around and made out what I assumed to be a billboard in the distance. I could make out the shape, but nothing else. My plan was to see where this billboard was when we exited. At the second sign, 1 km from the exit, I could see that something was on the billboard, but couldn't make out any shapes or words. At the third sign, 500 m from the exit, I could finally make out words (or rather, characters) and numbers. As it turns out, the sign was actually at the exit! Yay for me! I'm not sure how visibility is calculated, but I think this gives all of you a fair idea of what the air pollution can be like here.

So, back to the weather report. After I shared my opinion on the air quality, Mr. Mao looked at me, a little surprised, and said, "I think the weather is very good today!" (Aha! So, the weather is the AIR QUALITY, not the temperature or level of sunshine.) Of course, I can't resist, I have to ask, "Why do you think the weather is good today?"

"Because the car is very clean."

Well, there you have it. The weather according to Mr. Mao. If he doesn't have to wash the car, it must be good weather!