The weather impacts our decisions every single day. Decisions like what we wear, the chores and hobbies we participate in, and the family activities we plan. Meteorologists predict the weather with high-tech computers, but a hundreds of years ago, folks had to rely on observation and elementary tools to predict the weather of the coming days.
To help with this task of predicting the weather, farmers, sailors, and amateur meteorologists of all kinds came up with handy, often rhyming proverbs that could guide their observations. They realized that animal behavior, wind direction, air pressure (which could be measured with a barometer) were accurate indicators of how the weather would behave.
Long
before meteorologists (smartphone apps) had
sophisticated technology to help predict the weather, people made forecasts
based on their observations of the sky, animals, and nature. Weather proverbs of old can be applied today just as well as
they were centuries ago. Many
of the traditional sayings they used (proverbs) are accurate and have science
behind them. Here is some old-fashioned forecasting that still works today
on the weather and the natural world around
you:
1.
Clear moon,
frost soon: When the night sky is clear, Earth’s
surface cools rapidly. There is no cloud cover to keep the heat in. If the
night is clear enough to see the Moon and the temperature drops enough, frost
will form. Expect a chilly morning.
2.
Rain foretold, long
last. Short notice, soon will pass: If you find yourself toting an
umbrella around for days “just in case,” rain will stick around for several
hours when it finally comes. The gray overcast dominating the horizon means a
large area is affected. Conversely, if you get caught in a surprise shower,
it’s likely to be short-lived.
3. Rainbow
in the morning gives you fair warning: A rainbow in the morning indicates that a shower
is west of you and we will probably get it.
4. Red
sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning: A reddish sunset means that the
air is dusty and dry. Since weather in North American latitudes usually moves
from west to east, a red sky at sunset means dry weather (good for sailing) is
moving east. Conversely, a reddish sunrise means that dry air from the west has
already passed over you on their way easy, clearing the way for a storm to
move in.
5. Ring
around the moon? Rain real soon: A ring around the moon usually indicates an
advancing warm front, which means precipitation. Under those conditions, high,
thin clouds get lower and thicker as they pass over the moon. Ice crystals are
reflected by the moon’s light, causing a halo to appear.
6.
The higher the
clouds, the finer the weather: If
you spot wispy, thin clouds up where jet airplanes fly, expect a spell of
pleasant weather. Keep an eye on the smaller puffy clouds (cumulus),
especially if it’s in the morning or early afternoon. If the rounded tops of
these clouds, which have flat bases, grow higher than the one cloud’s width,
then there’s a chance of a thunderstorm forming.
7.
When clouds appear
like towers, the Earth is refreshed by frequent showers: When you spy large, white clouds that look like cauliflower or
castles in the sky, there is probably lots of dynamic weather going on inside.
Innocent clouds look like billowy cotton, not towers. If the clouds start to
swell and take on a gray tint, they’re probably turns into thunderstorms.
Watch out.
“When bubbles collect in the
center of your coffee cup, expect fair weather.
If they adhere to the rim, expect rain.
If there’s no fixed position, the weather will be changeable.”
(Anonymous)[i]
[i] Sources used:
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“22 Old Weather Proverbs That Are Actually True” by Jeremy Anderberg
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