Let’s face it, most of us old people can determine the weather better than the weather person on our local tv station. (that is if you watch tv, anymore) .
Today, we also have our cell phones and can look up a app pretty quick, but there is what some may call Old Fashioned weather tips.
If the smoke from your campfire rises highly in a long, spiral thread, then there’s good weather ahead, but if it rises sluggishly for a short distance drifts out slowly and settles. Then prepare for rain.
If the tree leaves are showing the undersides (especially the maples), look for rain within 24 hours.
Heavy dew on the grass means fair weather, no dew likely means rain soon.
Red at night, sailor’s delight. Red in the morning, sailors take warning. The same rule applies for rainbows in reverse. A rainbow in the morning means nothing good, but a rainbow in the evening means a fair day tomorrow.
When the moon wears a halo or ring around it, look for rain.
When the moon is clear bright and white, fair weather should be in store for tomorrow.
When the sky is like black velvet and the stars seem especially brilliant and more numerous than usual, look for rain or snow the next day.
Big white puffy clouds that look like balls of cotton mean fair weather, if they are scattered but gather in a mass over one spot like a mountain or wooded hill, look out!
Cirrus clouds or Mare’s tails those little wispy clouds high up, are a bad sign. If they are drifting fast across the sky, there is a storm coming very soon.
Clouds that move at different levels and in opposite directions are a warning of bad weather ahead.
If the clouds float high above sundown and are tinged with red, prepare for high wind soon.
Some may say these aren’t scientific weather definitions and I agree. But these are some of the understandings that the old timers have used for centuries. Remember, they didn’t have tv back in the day.
God Bless
Rick Cooper