Did you guys know about this thing? Apparently it shaves serious time off flights coming back from the west coast? How the hell did I miss this?
While casually discussing a friends flight plans at a bar on Friday I discovered this HUGE blind spot in my knowledge. I didn't know about the jetstream...I mean I guess subconsiously I did. I know that weather almost always comes from the west, but I never connected the fact that the wind blows west to east with shorter flight times. I was absoltuely dumbfounded, I argued til I was blue in the face that there was now way a flight from Boston to LA was an hour longer than a flight from LA to Boston. Hell, even after reading this wikipedia page, I still didn't quite buy it. I had to go to jetblue.com and actually book a round trip flight to LA to confirm for myself...Guys, turns out its true. That jet stream makes a huge difference. Up until that very moment I had prided myself on not having a blind spot. I knew at least a trivial amount of knowledge about everything on earth, or so I thought. Turns out I'd been living a lie.
Plus, I can't even tell you how many weather or earth sciences classes I took in college, and I aced them all, took the easy way out for my science requirements...Apparently they just failed to cover this phenomenon entirely, in Weather 101 and Weather 102. I have half a mind to write to the Dean and request a refund, frankly. When you're taking classes like that, at a bare minimum you expect not to look like an idiot at a bar with your friends over some trivial knowledge. Taking two intro to weather courses should all but assure you that you'll sweep any related category on Jeopardy. Well I would have thrown up an 0-fer when it came to the continental jet stream and it does not sit well with me.
