Have you ever wondered where all the phrases and weather predictions came from? Call them fables or old wives’ tales, but modern weather forecasters know better – many of them are honest to goodness reliable predictions. How did our ancestors back in the 18th century know so much? They were observant and watched nature at work. Only since the dawn of professional weather forecasting has there been a dependence upon the professionals for information that our great-great grandparents knew from simple but consistent observation.
A few of those sayings about the weather:
Rain before seven, fine by eleven.
Haloes around the moon mean that rain will surely come.
Moss dry, sunny sky; moss wet, rain you’ll get.
If cows are standing in a field it will be fine, but if they are lying down
it is going to rain.
No weather is ill, if the wind is still
The sharper the blast, the sooner it’s past.
If crows fly low, winds going to blow;
If crows fly high, winds going to die.
Clear moon, frost soon.
Here are a couple popular aphorisms about weather enjoyed in years past:
“Whether the weather be hot,
Or whether the weather be not,
We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.”
A fine article, and thank you.
The accumulated knowledge of skilled weather observers, even those without instruments, was and is valued, including by modern weathermen. But it’s important to recall that the modern instruments were invented or adapted to meteorology by precisely the same people who were themselves skilled in weather lore.
Our first really good weatherman was none other than Thomas Jefferson, who studied weather patterns and (I think) established the first system of weather stations, having reasoned that storms and other weather seemed to travel from one place to another.
I’m not sure if our kids these days are isolated from nature or not. Some clearly are–heck, I was myself–but many of them are heavily into woodcraft of one sort or another: canoeing, orienteering, or just camping; and they receive environmental courses in their schools that we never had. I didn’t have a clue what was in the creeks around Cleveland Heights in the 1950′s, and I didn’t know anyone else who did; but now the public school kids are down there with nets and water-evaluation kits and guides to the plants that grow there.
I’d count that as an improvement. Things are a lot more crowded these days, and a kid who knows something more about his surroundings than what he’s able to pick up just hanging around is likely to respect them a bit more. Then again, the loss of ‘hanging around’ time is a matter of some concern as well: nobody lets kids loaf as much as they should anymore.