Weather: by Tina Clinefelter

I’m going to fall back on what most people do when stuck for something to say – discus the weather!

In the dark ages before Doppler radar, satellites, weather balloons and other helpful instruments, the farmer, sailor and herdsman had to rely on personal observations and interpret what they saw, heard and felt. I’m pretty sure the original building that housed Accuweather did not have any windows, and this caused us to kiddingly call them In-Accuweather, but the farmer, sailor and herdsman actually went outside and peered at the clouds, checked the wind direction and took note of any weird animal behavior.

A lot of the ‘weather lore’ doesn’t hold up to scientific scrutiny, but there’s a grain of salt in many of the old sayings. I particularly support the science behind the ‘Red sky at night’; ‘the higher the cloud, the finer the weather’ and ‘mackerel sky and mares’ tails make tall ships carry low sails’ (indicating wind).
Incidentally the reason most of the old sayings were in rhyme form is so that they were memorable and could be passed down to the next generation.
Some old lore seems to make no sense: Easter in snow – Christmas in mud, and vice versa; If Candlemas day be sunny, winter will hang around for another 6 weeks (and we all know how many times the Groundhog has seen his shadow on February 2nd. There was a popular weather saying in England that states if it rains on St Swithin’s Day, (July 15th) it will rain for the next 40 days – I never checked it out… although on a vacation back home it rained 21 days out of 30…

Now let’s check out some of the modern meteorologists’ bag of tricks: the barometer is an instrument that measures air pressure and it is air pressure that moves weather from one place to another. Nature strives to equalize air pressure so the changing highs and lows bring us weather patterns and wind conditions.
An anemometer measures wind speeds and it is horizontal winds across the Earth’s surface that also moves weather patterns. We all know what a thermometer does and that exhausts my knowledge of weather predicting gizmos that measure tides, topography and relative humidity (whatever that is…)

Back to the ‘lore’: cows lay down in the field before a rainstorm to ensure they have a dry place to snooze, swallows fly low over water before a rain, and scarlet pimpernels and morning-glories close their petals when a storm approaches. Bees are never caught in a shower, and the smoke from a campfire rises during a high pressure system, but swirls and descends during a low. I love this stuff!

Just a quick note about clouds – high, white clouds = fine weather; low, black clouds portend a storm, a grey veil of clouds approaching – take cover!
It is said that one can predict the coming severity of winter by several signs: the heaviness of the mast crop (acorns/nuts), how high in a tree did the bald-faced hornet build its nest, and how much food did squirrels and chipmunks stash away.
You’re on your own with this one, but I do know that with all the preceding information, how come you get caught without an umbrella sometimes? Look out before you leave!

Happy New Year to all!
PS. How many of you can identify a scarlet pimpernel?