Weather Folklore Does it work?. Red sky at night, shepherds delight, red sky in the morning...

Weather Folklore

Does it work?

‘Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight, red sky in the morning shepherd's warning’

True or false?

Why is the sky red at sunset or sunrise?

The atmospheric gases scatter visible light from the sun.

Blue light (short wavelengths) is scattered more than red light

Low sun = long path through the atmosphere.

Most of the blue light is scattered right out of the beam – leaving just the red end of the spectrum

True

Frontal cloud

EASTCloud moving to the east

Red sky at night

Frontal cloud

Low sun

EASTCloud moving to the east

Low sun

Red sky in the morning

‘When swallows fly high, it will be dry’

True or false?

Why do swallows fly at a particular altitude?|

They’re catching insects to eat|

Why do the insects fly at that altitude?|

They have little choice – air motions in the atmosphere carry them around

|On days with strong heating of the surface, thermals will rise,

carrying the insects upwards |

So on sunny summer days, the swallows will fly high

True

‘Rain before seven, clear by eleven’

True or false?

False

Late night rain and early morning rain may be the last precipitation of a front passing by.

Weather fronts pass just as much in the day as they do at night, so rain in the morning is no predictor of a dry afternoon.

‘Seagull, seagull sit on the sand,It’s never good weather when

you’re on land’

True or false?

Seagulls usually sleep on water, but in gusty conditions the water is too

choppy. The seagulls then tend to move inland.

Therefore…seagulls huddled

on the ground are an

indicator that the weather

out at sea is poor.

True

‘When March blows it’s horn,Your barn will be filled with

grain and corn’

True or false?

False‘Blows it’s horn’ refers to the occurrence of

thunderstorms.

Thunderstorms in March indicate it is unusually warm for that time of year BUT it is

no indicator of a long term weather trend.

Farmers rarely plant their annual crop until May.

‘When halo rings around the moon or sun, rain is

approaching on the run’

True or false?

True

Halos around the moon or sun are caused by refraction of light by ice crystals at high altitude.

This 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.

‘St Swithin's Day if it do rain,for 40 days it will remain.

St Swithin's Day if it be fair,

for 40 days will rain no more ’

True or false?

False!

The Met Office tested this myth on July 15th on 55 occasions and on

each time 40 days of similar weather did not follow.

‘When March come in like a lion it goes out like a lamb, when it comes in like a lamb it goes out like a lion’

True or false?

False!

March can be a varied month for weather and just because it comes in

strongly at the beginning of the month doesn’t mean it will finish any

more gently!

True or false?

‘No weather is ill, if the wind be still’

True!

Calm conditions, indicate the dominance of a high pressure area especially if there are

clear skies. High pressure systems tend to give dry conditions but there can be a large

amount of low cloud.

True or false?

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

Unreliable!

Cows prefer to stand with their back to the wind so it doesn’t blow in their faces.

But is a westerly wind a ‘fair weather’ wind and an easterly wind more unsettled? Let’s start with the easterly - the logic is that prior to a low pressure system moving in the wind can (sometimes) turn easterly or at least have a move easterly

component so gives a signal of unsettled weather on the way. It is less clear about the westerly as a westerly wind is not

necessarily a ‘fair weather’ wind - there are some occasions when it is and others when it isn’t.