Walking and Climbing

So, let me see....

clouds in the sky = rain

no clouds in the sky = no rain

Brilliant!

Heres an old weather forecasting trick-

Hang a piece of kelp on your front door, by examining it you can tell what the weathers doing.  If its wet its raining, if you cant see it its foggy and if its gone its windy.

Reminds me of one of those old weather proverbs

"Mackeral scales and mares tails, tall ships run with low sails"

Storm abrewing !

Or the old Wasdale saying:

If you can see the Isle of Man from Seascale, it is going to rain.

If you can't see the Isle of Man, it is already raining.

It's the weekend, I'm going outside in the UK.  Therefore it will rain... there, that wasn't too hard!

"Lundy high, it will be dry, lundy low it will be snow, lundy plain it will be rain, lundy in haze, fine for days"

... to which my Dad added "Lundy gone, very high tide"

Pete.

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

This seems to be true but damned if I know why.

If the sky is red at night, it means there are no clouds on the western horizon, so the sun can shine through.  As this is where our weather comes from, it means there is nothing on its way in.  The red clouds being weather that is heading East and away from us.

Red sky in the morning, the Eastern Horizon is clear of cloud allowing the sun through to illuminate clouds coming in from the west bringing rain with them.

Or something like that.

Benco wrote (see)

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

This seems to be true but damned if I know why.

It's often true in the UK as our weather fronts usually move in from the Atlantic(West), and the sun sets in the West.

Snap!

Thanks......and, er ...thanks

Richard Roworth wrote (see)

If the sky is red at night, it means there are no clouds on the western horizon, so the sun can shine through.  As this is where our weather comes from, it means there is nothing on its way in.  The red clouds being weather that is heading East and away from us.

Red sky in the morning, the Eastern Horizon is clear of cloud allowing the sun through to illuminate clouds coming in from the west bringing rain with them.

Or something like that.

Then

"Red sky at night, Shepherds fright, red sky in the morning, shepherds yawning"

I'll get my coat

> As to the "gurl" bit

Yes, it should really be 'InsTrukR Grrrll".  Or somesuch...

I don't know.

I suppose the American Continant is massive compared to our Little Island so in some places it could be true and not in others?

Hi there 

Gurl/Girl here...whichever you prefer...

Nice weather anecdotes to remember...sharing info is always good.

The 'red sky at night' rhyme is more than an old wives' tale and has some meteorological foundation - in England at least.

To explain why we'll need to know why clouds sometimes appear red and how that may be used to predict the weather. Firstly, why do clouds often appear red in the morning and evening?

- Sunlight is broken into the familiar rainbow spectrum of varying-wavelength colours as it passes through the atmosphere.

- The blue/violet end of the spectrum is diverted more than the red/orange.

(This is the same mechanism that causes us to see the sky as blue incidentally, but that's getting rather off our point)

- When the sun is low in the sky, at dawn and dusk, sunlight travels through more atmosphere than at other times of day. The red wavelength is better able to go on a direct course and be reflected back off clouds, whereas the blue light is more scattered before reaching the cloud and is therefore less visible. So, we see the clouds as red as the light that is reaching them is primarily red.

...and how does that help predict the weather?

- The weather in the UK comes from the west, i.e. the wind is primarily westerly.

- The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

- If there is broken cloud in the morning we may look to the west and see red light reflecting back from the cloud, i.e. 'red sky in the morning'. As the clouds are coming towards us there must be a chance of rain, at least an increased chance compared with the cloudless period we had just enjoyed.

- Likewise for 'red sky at night'. If we see red clouds in the evening they will be in the east and have already passed us by, giving a good chance of clear skies and fine weather ahead.

Nah! Nah! Nah! You've got it all wrong....

 ....Red sky at night - your barn's on fire!

Beth wrote (see)

As to the "gurl" bit... can't someone spell or did they think it was trendy?