Cumulus humilis indicates a good day ahead.

Weather lore is the body of informal folklore related to the prediction of the weather. This sky has nice day written all over it. ... This sky has nice day written all over it. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ... A prediction or forecast is a statement or claim that a particular event will occur in the future. ... Find more information on Weather by searching Wikipedias sister projects: Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary Textbooks from Wikibooks Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Images and media from Commons News stories from Wikinews Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena...

It has been a human desire for millennia to make accurate weather predictions. Oral and written history is full of rhymes, anecdotes, and adages meant to guide the uncertain in determining whether the morrow will bring weather fair or foul. For the farmer wanting to plant his crop, for the merchant about to send his ships on trade, foreknowledge of tomorrow's circumstances might mean the difference between success and failure. Prior to the invention of the mercury barometer, it was very difficult to gather numerical data of any predictive value. Even though there were devices such as the weather stick which gave some indication of moisture changes, the only instrument of any reliability was human experience. A millennium is a period of time, equal to one thousand years (from Latin mille, thousand, and annum, year). ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: History For other senses of this word, see history (disambiguation). ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... An anecdote is a brief tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident. ... An adage is a short, but memorable saying, which holds some important fact of experience that is considered true by many people, or it has gained some credibility through its long use. ... Farmer spreading grasshopper bait in his alfalfa field. ... Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit. ... Schematic drawing of a simple mercury barometer with vertical mercury column and reservoir at base Table of Pneumaticks, 1728 Cyclopaedia A barometer is an instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure. ... Also known as a Maine weather stick, the weather stick is a balsam fir rod, generally about 40cm (16) long which when mounted outside twists upward with the onset of good weather and downward as inclement weather approaches. ...

A typical example

"Dirty days hath September

April, June and November

From January up to May

The rain it raineth every day

All the rest have thirty-one

Without a blessed gleam of sun

And if any of them had two-and-thirty

They'd be just as wet and twice as dirty."

This humorous rhyme has been attributed to various authors in various eras, perhaps indicating how generally true it is of winter on the west coasts of both Europe and North America. While not precisely true, it nonetheless predicts with fair accuracy what weather is likely to occur any given day between September and June in Vancouver or London. Rain falling For other uses see Rain (disambiguation). ... The Sun is the spectral type G2V yellow star at the center of Earths solar system. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... In science, engineering, industry and statistics, accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured or calculated quantity to its actual, nominal, or some other reference, value. ... City of Vancouver Vancouver (pronounced ) is a Canadian city in the province of British Columbia. ... For other uses, see London (disambiguation) and Defining London (below). ...

Where does weather happen?

Marestail shows moisture at high altitude, signalling the later arrival of wet weather.

It is in Earth's middle latitudes, between roughly 30° to 60° North and South, that a significant portion of humanity's daily activities take place. It is also within these rough boundaries that "weather" can be said to happen, that is, where meteorological phenomena do not persist over the long term, and where it may be warm, sunny, and calm one day, and cold and stormy the next. Marestail is very high cirrus cloud, composed not of liquid water but of ice. ... Earth is the third planet from the Sun. ... Find more information on Weather by searching Wikipedias sister projects: Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary Textbooks from Wikibooks Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Images and media from Commons News stories from Wikinews Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena... A meteorological phenomenon is one of several commonplace or unusual weather events which illuminate and are explained by the principles of meteorology. ...

A great percentage of the world's population lives in the equatorial regions, but for the most part, these regions do not experience weather as it is understood by this definition. The Sahara Desert, for instance, is almost uniformly hot and dry, whereas weather trends on the Indian subcontinent and in the western Pacific, ie, the monsoonal belt, occur gradually over the very long term, and the diurnal weather patterns remain constant. The equator is an imaginary circle drawn around a planet (or other astronomical object) at a distance halfway between the poles. ... The Sahara is the worlds second largest desert (second to Antarctica), over 9,000,000 km² (3,500,000 mi²), located in northern Africa and is 2. ... Composite satellite image of the Indian subcontinent Map of South Asia. ... For other meanings of Pacific, see Pacific (disambiguation). ... Monsoon in the Vindhya, a mountain chain in central India A monsoon is a wind pattern that reverses direction on a seasonal basis. ... Diel means in the course of the day. Thus a diel variation is a variation that occurs regularly every day or most days. ...

Weather lore, therefore, refers to this mid-latitude region of daily variability. While some of it may apply equally to the Southern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere resident may need to take into account the fact that weather systems rotate opposite to those in the North. For instance, the "crossed winds" rule (see below) must be reversed for the Australian reader. Lore is: A body of cultural traditions and knowledge. ... Southern Hemisphere The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planets surface (or celestial sphere) that is south of the equator (the word hemisphere literally means half ball). On Earth it contains four continents (part of Africa, Oceania, most of South America, and Antarctica) and four oceans (South Atlantic...

How accurate is weather lore?

Any sufficiently lengthy process of observation, combined with testing of and revision of hypotheses, will produce some useful information. Since this process is the basis of the scientific method, weather lore cannot generally be said to be unscientific. However, it may not take into account or be aware of larger circumstances which affect local conditions. It may also include ideas which linger not because of their falsifiable nature, but through long tradition, or which are true just often enough to lend the air of credibility. Weather lore purporting to make long-range prediction is particularly susceptible to this phenomenon. Look up Process in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Process (lat. ... Observation is an activity of an intelligent living being, to sense and assimiliate the knowledge of a phenomenon in its framework of previous knowledge and ideas. ... The words test and testing have many meanings: Testing or experimentation is part of the scientific method, to verify or falsify an already formed expectation with an observation. ... A hypothesis (from ancient Greek hypotithenai meaning to put under or to suppose) offers a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. ... Info redirects here; for other uses, see . ... The scientific method is a technique of investigation and acquisition of new knowledge, as well as the integration, elimination, and/or explanation of previous knowledge, based upon observable, measurable evidence. ...

A mackerel sky portends changeable weather.

The rhyme above, for instance, describes circumstances which occur as the planet-girdling north Polar front slips south and meets warm, moist air pulled in from equatorial regions. Two hundred years ago, the concept of huge rotating air masses creating weather was not only unknown, but would have gotten one laughed out of a scientific establishment if ventured as an explanation. A mackerel sky over Edmonton, Alberta is an indicator of moisture (the cloud) and instability (the cumulus form) at high levels. ... A mackerel sky over Edmonton, Alberta is an indicator of moisture (the cloud) and instability (the cumulus form) at high levels. ... Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air, and the means (together with the ocean circulation, which is smaller [1]) by which heat is distributed on the surface of the Earth. ... In meteorology, an airmass or air mass is a large volume of air having fairly uniform characteristics of temperature, atmospheric pressure, and water vapor content. ...

As a consequence, even though there is some predictive value to much of the body of folklore, it is necessarily ignorant of why it predicts what it does, and of inconsistent reliability in how accurately it predicts what it does. However, a considerable body of weather lore is reliable enough that it can be said to be useful. A prediction or forecast is a statement or claim that a particular event will occur in the future. ... Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. ...

True lore, and why

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning,

Red sky at night, sailor's delight.

A red sunset probably means good weather tomorrow.

Weather systems typically move from west to east, and red clouds result when the sun shines on their undersides at either sunrise or sunset. At these two times of day, the sun's light is passing at a very low angle through a great thickness of atmosphere, the result of which is the absorption of most of the shorter wavelengths -- the greens, blues, and violets -- of the visible spectrum, and so sunlight is heavy at the red end of the spectrum. If the morning skies are red, it is likely that clear skies to the east permit the sun to light the undersides of moisture-bearing clouds coming in from the west. Conversely, in order to see red clouds in the evening, sunlight must have a clear path from the west in order to illuminate moisture-bearing clouds moving off to the east. There are many variations on this piece of lore, but they all carry the same message. The word morning referred originally to the sunrise, but has been extended to mean the whole early part of the day, from dawn to noon. ... A sailor is a member of the crew of a ship or boat. ... Melbourne skyline at night Night or Nighttime is the period in which the Sun is below the horizon. ... A red sky occurs primarily at sunrise or sunset, when the suns rays are passing through the greatest thickness of atmosphere. ... A red sky occurs primarily at sunrise or sunset, when the suns rays are passing through the greatest thickness of atmosphere. ... A compass rose with west highlighted This article refers to the cardinal direction; for other uses see West (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Cumulus of fair weather A cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. ... The Sun is the spectral type G2V yellow star at the center of Earths solar system. ... Sunrise over the sea Sunrise, also called sunup in some American English dialects, is the time at which the first part of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. ... A red sunset panorama Sunset, also called sundown in some American English dialects, is the time at which the Sun disappears below the horizon in the west. ... The visible spectrum (or sometimes optical spectrum) is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. ... Moisture generally refers to the presence of water in trace amounts. ...

Matthew 16:3 -- He answered and said unto them,

"When it is evening, ye say,

'It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.'

And in the morning,

'It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowring.'"

Shakespeare, in his play Venus and Adonis wrote: The Gospel of Matthew (literally: according to Matthew, Greek: Κατα Μαθθαιον ) is one of the four Gospel accounts of the New Testament. ... William Shakespeare—born April 1564; baptised April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616 (O.S.), May 3, 1616 (N.S.)—has a reputation as the greatest of all writers in English. ... Venus and Adonis is one of Shakespeares three longer poems. ...

Like a red morn that ever yet betokened,

Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field,

Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds,

Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.

The doggerel at the start of this section differs in the United Kingdom:

Red sky at night, shepherd's delight,

Red sky in morning, shepherd's warning.

Sky color alone is not the only predictor of weather quality. In a draw in a mountainous region, a shepherd guides a flock of about 20 sheep amidst scrub and olive trees. ...

Mackerel sky and mares' tails make lofty ships carry low sails.

The unmistakable herringbone pattern of mackerel sky and the long, wispy cirrus which is mare's tail are all high-altitude indicators that a moisture-bearing low pressure system is moving in from the west. This usually means an increase in wind speeds, a shift to blustery easterly winds, and increased cloud and precipitation within the next 24 hours or so. A wise captain avoids torn sails and damaged spars by taking his sails in. Italian ship-rigged vessel Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976 A ship is a large, sea-going watercraft, sometimes with multiple decks. ... A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind —in essence a vertically-oriented wing. ... A sky filled with cirrus clouds A cirrus cloud is a type of cloud characterized by thin, wisplike strands. ... A low, or a low pressure area, is a region of rising atmospheric air. ... Wind is the roughly horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earths surface. ...

Mackerel sky,

Mackerel sky,

Not long wet,

Not long dry.

When clouds appear like rocks and towers,

the earth's refreshed with frequent showers.

Cumulus towers indicate the possibility of showers later in the day. This one is a clear indicator of coming active weather.

The characteristic cauliflower shape of summer cumulus clouds is an indicator of moist surface air rising quickly into cooler, drier air aloft. When towers (cumulus castellanus) appear, they indicate a relatively higher degree of instability between warm, moist air at the surface and cool, dry air aloft. Such towers may well grow into local thundershowers as the day progresses. This active cumulus castellanus cloud is indicative of extremely unstable conditions in the lower levels of the atmosphere. ... This active cumulus castellanus cloud is indicative of extremely unstable conditions in the lower levels of the atmosphere. ... Cultivar Group Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group Cauliflower is a variety (Botrytis Group) of Brassica oleracea in the family Brassicaceae. ... Cumulus Clouds A cumulus cloud (Cu) is a cloud belonging to a class characterized by dense individual elements in the form of puffs, mounds or towers, with flat bases and tops that often resemble cauliflower. ... Moisture generally refers to the presence of water in trace amounts. ...

When rain comes before the wind, dories, gear and vessel mind;

When wind comes before the rain, soon you'll make the set again

When rain comes before wind, it is often the result of an approaching front, which frequently means unsettled weather for a day or two. If wind comes before rain, it is often just the downdraft from an approaching local rainstorm, which will likely blow over in a few hours. A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat of approximately 5 to 7 m (15 to 22 feet) in length. ... Find more information on Weather by searching Wikipedias sister projects: Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary Textbooks from Wikibooks Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Images and media from Commons News stories from Wikinews Weather is an all-encompassing term used to describe all of the many and varied phenomena... Rain falling Rain on an umbrella Rain is a form of precipitation, as are snow, sleet, hail, and dew. ...

When the wind is blowing in the North

No fisherman should set forth,

When the wind is blowing in the East,

'Tis not fit for man nor beast,

When the wind is blowing in the South

It brings the food over the fish's mouth,

When the wind is blowing in the West,

That is when the fishing's best!

Cold, blustery northerly winds typically accompany a low pressure system.

This description of wind direction is an excellent illustration of how the weather events of an active low pressure area present themselves. With the approach of a low, easterly winds typically pick up. These gusty winds can be unpleasant for a number of reasons; they are often uncomfortably warm, dry, and dusty in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter. Northerly winds, which follow around a low, are cold and blustery. Sailing in conditions of northerly winds requires expertise and a boat capable of handling heavy waves. Southerly winds bring warm temperatures, and though they may not necessarily feed the fish, they do provide pleasant fishing weather. The best circumstance, however, is to have a westerly wind blowing; the wind condition is likely to persist for some time, the weather should remain fair and clear, and the wind should be relatively constant. Stratocumulus and cool northerly winds indicate a low pressure area is passing to the south. ... Stratocumulus and cool northerly winds indicate a low pressure area is passing to the south. ... A low pressure area, or a low for short, is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lowest with relation to the surrounding area. ... Summer is a season, defined by convention in meteorology as the whole months of June, July, and August, in the Northern hemisphere, and the whole months of December, January, and February, in the Southern hemisphere. ... Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ... Sailing at sunset Wooden sailing boat Sailing is the skillful art of controlling the motion of a sailing ship or smaller boat, across a body of water. ... Lobster boat A boat is a watercraft, usually smaller than most ships. ...

It should be noted that wind and weather observations will be different for a low passing to the north of the observer than for one passing to the south. When a low passes to the north, the winds typically pick up from the east, swing to southerly (possibly accompanied by light precipitation, usually not) with the passage of the low's warm front, and then switch to northwesterly or westerly as the cold front passes. Typically, if there is any heavy precipitation, it will accompany the passage of the cold front. When a low passes to the south, on the other hand, winds will initially pick up from the east, but will gradually shift to northerly. Overcast skies and steady precipitation often occur as the center of the low passes due south, but skies will clear and winds will gradually become westerly as the low moves off to the east. No observer will experience all the weather elements of a low in a single passage.

No weather is ill, if the wind be still.

Calm conditions, especially with clear skies, indicate the dominance of a high pressure area. Because highs are regions of descending air, they discourage the formation of phenomena typically associated with weather, such as clouds, wind, and precipitation. Calm conditions, though, may also result from a circumstance known as "the calm before the storm," in which a large thunderstorm cell to the west may be updrafting the westerly wind before it can arrive locally. This situation is readily identifiable by looking to the west — such an approaching storm will be close enough to be unmistakable. In winter, though, calm air and clear skies may signal the presence of an Arctic high, and it is difficult to imagine describing a temperature of -35°C as pleasant. A high, or a high pressure area, is a region where the atmospheric pressure is greatest with relation to the surrounding area. ...

Seagull, seagull sit on the sand.

It's never good weather when you're on the land.

Seagulls are not especially fond of standing or walking. They are naturally at home in flight, and where they can, they sleep on the water. However, seagulls, like people, find gusty, turbulent wind difficult to contend with, and under such circumstances, the water is also choppy and unpleasant. Seagulls huddled on the ground are not likely a predictor of bad weather as much as they are a sign that the weather is already bad. Genera Pagophila Larus Rissa Creagus Xema Rhodostethia Gulls are seabirds in the family Laridae and subfamily Lari. ... For other uses, see Sand (disambiguation). ... Flight is the process of flying: either movement through the air by aerodynamically generating lift or aerostatically using buoyancy, or movement beyond earths atmosphere by spacecraft. ... In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic, stochastic property changes. ...

When halo rings the moon or sun, rain's approaching on the run

A halo around the sun or moon is caused by the refraction of that body's light by ice crystals at high altitude. Such high-level moisture is a precursor to moisture moving in at increasingly lower levels, and is a good indicator that an active weather system is on its way. Halos typically evolve into what is known as "milk sky", when the sky appears clear, but the typical blue is either washed-out or barely noticeable. This high, thick cirrostratus cloud is a clear indicator of an approaching low. Halo around the sun at the South Pole (NOAA) Halos are optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. ... The straw seems to be broken, due to refraction of light as it emerges into the air. ... Icicles A natural ice block in Iceland Ice is the solid form of water. ... ...

When windows won't open, and the salt clogs the shaker,

The weather will favour the umbrella maker!

Moisture in the air causes wood to swell, making doors and windows sticky, and salt is a very effective absorber of moisture. With a high level of moisture in the air, the likelihood of precipitation is increased. A window is an opening in an otherwise solid, opaque surface through which light and sometimes air can pass. ... A magnified crystal of a salt (halite/sodium chloride) In chemistry, a salt is any ionic compound composed of positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, so that the product is neutral and without a net charge. ... An umbrella is a device used for temporary shade or shelter from precipitation. ... Moisture generally refers to the presence of water in trace amounts. ... A tree trunk as found at the Veluwe, The Netherlands Wood derives from woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs. ... Moisture generally refers to the presence of water in trace amounts. ...

A cow with its tail to the West makes the weather best,

A cow with its tail to the East makes the weather least

Cows, like people, prefer not to have the wind blowing in their faces, and so typically stand with their backs to the wind. Since westerly winds typically mean arriving or continuing fair weather and easterly winds usually indicate arriving or continuing unsettled weather, a cowvane is as good a way as any of knowing what the weather will be up to for the next little while.

A summer fog for fair,

A winter fog for rain.

A fact most everywhere,

In valley or on plain.

A cold air mass sweeping across Lake Superior and Lake Michigan from the northwest collides with the moist air above the lakes and produces lake effect snow.

Fog is formed when the air cools enough that the vapor pressure encourages condensation over evaporation. In order for the air to be cool on a summer night, the sky must be clear, so excess heat can be radiated into space. Cloudy skies act like a blanket, keeping the heat in. So if it is cool enough (and clear enough) for fog to form, it will probably be clear the next day. Winter fog is the result of two entirely different circumstances. Above the ocean or a large lake, air is typically more humid than above land. When the humid air moves over cold land, it will form fog and precipitation. (To the east of Canada's Great Lakes, this is a common phenomenon, and is known as the "Lake Effect.") In northerly climates, ice fog may form when the temperature drops substantially below freezing. It is almost exclusively an urban phenomenon, when the air is so cold that any vapor pressure results in condensation, and additional vapor emitted by automobiles, hosehold furnaces, and industrial plants simply accumulates as fog. Sunlight filters through a thin layer of fog on a crisp winter morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Fljótsdalur in East-Iceland A valley is a landform, which can range from a few square miles (square kilometers) to hundreds or even thousands of square miles (square kilometers) in area. ... In geography, a plain is a large area of land with relatively low relief. ... . NASA image from http://earthobservatory. ... . NASA image from http://earthobservatory. ... Lake Superior, viewed from Au Train Bay in Alger County, Michigan Lake Superior (known as Gichigami in an Ojibwe language), bounded by Ontario and Minnesota to the north and Wisconsin and Michigan in the south, is the largest of North Americas Great Lakes. ... Sunset on Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. ... The vapor pressure is the pressure (if the vapor is mixed with other gases, the partial pressure) of a vapor (this vapour being formed from molecules/atoms escaping from a liquid/solid). ... Condensation is the change in matter of a substance to a denser phase, such as gas (or vapor) to a liquid. ... Evaporation is the process whereby atoms or molecules in a liquid state (or solid state if the substance sublimes) gain sufficient energy to enter the gaseous state. ... A typical daytime sky. ... In physics, heat is defined as energy in transit. ... Layers of Atmosphere - not to scale (NOAA) Outer space, also called just space, refers to the relatively empty regions of the Universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... The Great Lakes from space The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. ... Lake-effect clouds off Lakes Superior and Michigan; satellite image taken December 5, 2000, courtesy of NASA. Lake effect snow is produced in the winter when cold winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water, picking up water vapor which freezes and is deposited on the lee shores. ... Sunlight filters through a thin layer of fog on a crisp winter morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ... Urban area is a term used to define an area where there is an increased density of man-made structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. ...

When sounds travel far and wide,

A stormy day will betide.

This piece of lore is true in summer but possibly false in winter. Moisture-laden air is a better conductor of sound than dry air, so moist air carries sounds farther. In winter, temperature also becomes an important factor. If the air is warm and moist, the rule holds. If the air is very cold, it is also very dense and a better sound conductor than warm air, and also likely to be much drier. When sounds carry over a long distance, the cold, clear weather is likely to linger. A schematic representation of hearing. ... Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ... In science and engineering, conductors are materials that contain movable charges of electricity. ...

If clouds move against the wind, rain will follow.

This rule may be true under a few special circumstances, otherwise it is false. By standing with one's back to the ground-level wind and observing the movement of the clouds, it is possible to determine whether the weather will improve or deteriorate. For the Northern Hemisphere, it works like this: If the upper-level clouds are moving from the right, a low-pressure area has passed and the weather will improve; if from the left, a low pressure area is arriving and the weather will deteriorate. (Reverse for the Southern Hemisphere.) This is known as the "crossed-winds" rule. Clouds travelling parallel to but against the wind may indicate a thunderstorm approaching. Outflow winds typically blow opposite to the updraft zone, and clouds carried in the upper level wind will appear to be moving against the surface wind. However, if such a storm is in the offing, it is not necessary to observe the cloud motions to know rain is a good possibility. The nature of airflows directly at a frontal boundary can also create conditions in which lower winds contradict the motions of upper clouds, and the passage of a frontal boundary is often marked by precipitation. Most often, however, this situation occurs in the lee of a low pressure area, to the north of the frontal zones and convergence region, and does not indicate a change in weather, but rather, that the weather, fair or showery, will remain so for a period of hours at least. Southern Hemisphere The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planets surface (or celestial sphere) that is south of the equator (the word hemisphere literally means half ball). On Earth it contains four continents (part of Africa, Oceania, most of South America, and Antarctica) and four oceans (South Atlantic...

A coming storm your shooting corns presage,

And aches will throb, your hollow tooth will rage.

There have been medical studies done which indicate some people experience this effect. The most likely reason is that with a fall in atmospheric pressure, blood vessels dilate slightly in reaction. This has the effect of aggravating already-irritated nerves near corns, cavities, or arthritic joints. The arterial system The blood vessels are part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body. ... Arthritis (from Greek arthro-, joint + -itis, inflammation) is a group of conditions that affect the health of the bone joints in the body. ...

False lore, and why

If on February 2 (Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada) the groundhog sees its shadow, thirty days of winter remain. If not, spring will follow immediately.

Annual records show that the groundhog prediction is correct half the time and incorrect half the time. In other words, there is no correlation between the behavior of groundhogs and the date when spring begins. February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Groundhog Day 2005 in Punxsutawney. ... Binomial name Marmota monax (Linnaeus, 1758) This Groundhog gets an unexpected visit from a dog near a freeway interchange. ...

If spring comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.

According to records, fierce weather when spring begins does not necessarily imply gentler weather later. Spring comes in and goes out equally as often in either guise. Spring is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. ... Binomial name Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) The Lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae. ... Lamb A lamb being bottle fed A lamb is a young sheep less than a year old. ...

Rain before seven, clear by eleven.

Late-night rains and early morning rains may simply be the last precipitation of a passing weather front. However, since fronts pass at night as often as they do in the day, morning rain is no predictor of a dry afternoon. This lore can describe non-frontal weather. Given sufficient surface heating, a late-day rainstorm may continue to develop into the night, produce early precipitation, then dissipate by late morning. This, though, is the exception rather than the rule.

When March blows its horn,

your barn will be filled with hay and corn.

"Blows its horn" refers to thunderstorms. While March thunderstorms indicate that the weather is unusually warm for that time of year (thunderstorms can occur only with a sufficiently large temperature difference between ground and sky and sufficient amounts of moisture to produce charge differential within a cloud), it is no indicator of the long-term weather trend. It is still unwise to plant your annuals before the long May weekend. A horn is a tapered sound-guide designed to provide an acoustic impedance match between a sound-producing device and the characteristic impedance of free space. ... A barn in southern Ontario, Canada A barn in Wisconsin A barn in Poland Barn redirects here, for other uses, see Barn (disambiguation). ... Hay is dried grass (and pasture flowers) cut and used for animal feed. ... Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible seeds (actually a fruit called a caryopsis). ... Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ...

Cats and dogs eat grass before a rain.

While it is true that cats and dogs eat grass, it has nothing to do with the weather and is probably due to the fact that cats and dogs are not exclusively carnivorous. Some researchers believe that dogs eat grass as an emetic when feeling ill. Vomiting (or emesis) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of ones stomach through the mouth. ...

Onion skins very thin

Mild winter coming in;

Onion skins thick and tough

Coming winter cold and rough.

This verse, and so many others like it, attempts to predict long-range conditions. These predictions have stood the test of time only because they rely on selective memory: people remember when they have predicted correctly and forget when predictions don't hold. One possible factor which could provide these predictions with a thin edge of credibility is that there is some degree of consistency in weather from year to year. Drought cycles or El Niño winters are a perfect example of such circumstances. A pattern of cool summers and warm winters, for instance, may produce patterns in other natural events sensitive enough to be affected by changes in temperature or precipitation. Binomial name Allium cepa L. Onion in the general sense can be used for any plant in the Genus Allium but used without qualifiers usually means Allium cepa L., also called the garden onion. ... A drought or an extreme dry periodic climate is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. ... Chart of ocean surface temperature anomaly [°C] during the last strong El Niño in December 1997 El Niño and La Niña (also written in English as El Nino and La Nina) are major temperature fluctuations in surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean. ...

In the British Isles, Saint Swithun's day is supposed to forecast forty days of rain if there is any precipitation on the saint's feast day. In France, the feast day of St. Médard fulfils the same function. In Russia, the weather on the feast of the Protecting Veil is popularly believed to indicate the severity of the forthcoming winter. The British Isles consist of Great Britain, Ireland and a number of much smaller surrounding islands. ... St. ... The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organising a liturgical year on the level of days by associating each day with a saint, and referring to the day as the saints day of that saint. ...

A reliable prediction

This ode to the weatherman is one which never fails:

And in the dying embers

These are my main regrets:

When I'm right no one remembers;

When I'm wrong no one forgets.

References

• "The Story of Weather" - Bill Giles (ISBN 0-11-400355-6)
• "Instant Weather Forecasting in Canada" - Alan Watts (Library of Congress #68-9173)

External links

• Folk Lore Weather Forecasting
• Coldal
• Number 31
• Skywatch - Signs of the Weather