Weather

People are always talking about the weather. It is a source of small talk in a group of strangers. We often turn on the television or radio for the sole purpose of finding out the weather forecast.

And yet oddly enough, no one ever seems satisfied with the weather - it's either too hot, too cold, too rainy or too sunny.

Every culture has expressions about the weather. Below you will find examples of various bits of 'weather wisdom' from around the globe.

A Storm is Coming when...

■ Flowers close up before a storm.

■ When the leaves of trees turn over

■ Before a storm, cows will lie down or refuse to go out to pasture (beta). But, when cows are lying down in a field it'll remain fine, once they stand up rain is on its way.

■ Flowers smell best just before a rain.

■ Killing a spider will make it rain the next day.

■ Swallows fly high when winds are light. So when they start flying low, the storm is coming!

■ When you see that the ants are excited and coming out at unusual hours to do their work, it means that it is going to rain.

■ Rain before seven, fine for eleven.

■ Snow is due when the cat washes behind both ears.

It Will Be a Bad Winter:

■ If there are lots of berries on trees.

■ If squirrels gather huge stores of nuts and have thick bushy tails.

■ If ant hills are high in July, winter will be snowy.

■ If the first week in August is unusually warm, the coming winter will be snowy and long.

■ For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall in winter.

■ If the first snow falls on unfrozen ground, expect a mild winter.

■ The first frost in autumn will be exactly six months after the first thunderstorm of the spring.

■ Worms plug the entrances to their holes when it gets cold.

Here are a few things people say around the world:

■ April showers bring May flowers.

■ Red sky at night is a sailor's delight. Red sky in morning - sailor take warning.

General Weather 'Wisdom'

■ A green Christmas means a full churchyard - meaning that colds, pneumonia, etc are all worse in warm winters.

■ If you sneeze three times within a few seconds, the next day will be sunny.

■ When a woman sleeps with her foot outside the covers, cold weather is over.