Weather Lore: Part Two

 

As we're almost halfway through the year, it's a good time to continue with the wonderful world of sayings, signs and verses of weather lore. 

Last time we finished with April so we'll start here with May...appropriately enough! The hedgerows contain a lovely array of spring flowers, including these fragile and very pretty wild roses - called Dog Rose - that begin to show themselves in late May and during the month of June.

As mentioned last time, there's this well-known saying...

"March winds and April showers
Bring forth May flowers."

...and we certainly had a lot of both windy and rainy weather last year. Unusually, it was a very cold Spring and people in most of Britain were wearing jackets, hoodies and jumpers, etc, until the last week in June when we suddenly had a hot Summer for a couple of days! 

This year we had a fair amount of rain until a few weeks ago, when we mostly had sunny days, lovely and warm at last, although still chilly in the evenings and early mornings. Now we're in May there's a chilly wind with warm sun interspersed with cold patches of cloud.

Some signs of rain include Cumulonimbus clouds with their tall towers high in the sky, indicating heavy rain. They are also colloquially known as Thunder Clouds as they are sometimes a sign of thunderstorms on their way.

The clouds gradually spread out to form a fully cloudy sky. Sometimes they continue overhead, leaving a clear sky inbetween the passing of more of the tall clouds but eventually spread everywhere and the rain falls.

An old saying about Cumulonimbus clouds is :

"Mountains in the morning,
Fountains in the evening."

When there's moisture in the air distant sounds carry further, often with an slight echo. I find this one really interesting because our small coastal town is in a valley between two cliffs, and the echoey sound is quite pronounced. We also can't receive radio signals very well, but that's a whole different story.

Another sign is that of mist in the morning. Usually on the coast, mist on the rivers flow down towards the sea but can also happen inland when it can come from hills. Apparently, if the mist travels up river it can be a sign of good weather to come, whereas flowing downwards indicates bad weather.

I've seen this lovely phenomenon many times and it's a truly dramatic sight.

And here's the rhyme for that piece of weather lore:

"When the mist is from the hill
Then good weather it doth spill (spoil),
When the mist is from the sea
Then good weather it will be."

One of the most reliable indications of rain to come is due to excessive moisture in the air, which makes distant objects stand out brightly coloured and very clearly. Sometimes this can cause a golden glow around them too, which is fabulous when it's against a dark blue sky.

Interestingly, there is a local rhyme about this where I live in the small seaside town of Seaton, situated almost in the centre of Lyme Bay. Portland is an island on the eastern side of the Bay, and can only be seen from here when this effect takes place. As the rhyme says:

"See Portland plain,
Tis sign of rain."

Excessive moisture can also appear to cause rings around the sun or moon; called a corona if near to the sphere or a halo if further away. Of course, it's only our perception as seen through the moist air, and here's the folk rhyme defining how the rain cuts off sight of the moon the following evening.

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,
Tonight no moon we see."

I don't have a photo of this phenomenon so I'll make do with the crescent moon photo above. :)

And, of course, nearly everyone's familiar with this one:

"Red sky at night, shepherds delight,
Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning."

The photo below was taken one morning, starting with red clouds turning orange then gradually turning grey and covering the sky. I'm sure the rooftop birds knew what was coming as they seemed to be huddling in readiness. 

And a very fiery evening sky, below.

Some other bits of weather wisdom for May:

"Cold May and windy,
Barn filleth up finely"

Which is exactly how the weather is so far.

"A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay."

"Water in May brings bread through all the year."

There is also the wonderfully refreshing effect from rain hitting dry soil, which produces that delightful scent called Petrichor. 

It's a good job all this rain is good for us as we have such a lot of it here! ;)
 

And I'm going to leave it there for now. There is so much about May, plus other weather phenomonen, that continuing into the rest of the year would make this part rather long. Anyway, I really enjoyed writing that so I will make a start with Part Three. 

I'm not sure what's coming up next. I've only got one former website article to rewrite, plus one old photo shoot on the contents list but I'm not sure whether to add them or not. Also some Useful Books posts, which I'll have to get on with, along with more Other Photography and Odds & Ends. Anyway, I've got Fore Street in Beer to finish, and then that's it until some new photos have been finished, processed and scanned.

So, Fore Street in Beer it is then! Or is it? ;)

Cheers, everyone, and I'll be with you again soon. :)