You know, like the groundhog seeing his shadow on groundhoga day. What local sayings or traditions do you have? One that readily comes to mind is that once the Forsythia blooms, you will have 3 more snows. And the Wooley Bear caterpillar can predict the winter weather. What are your local sayings?
I've never heard the one about the forsythia.. I hope it's not true this year. One that comes to my mind is "Red sky at night, sailor's delight." Supposed to predict good wind. Something about if the flies sit on you (instead of flying away), a storm is coming. (Not sure I have that one right -- has anyone else ever heard of that one?)
Pink skies in the morning sailors take warning...storm is coming - old saying that has never worked for me. Mare's tails (cirus clouds; the ones that are whispy) fortell a storm coming in from the Pacific (usually in about 2 days)- this seems to work in this region .
'Ne'er cast a cloot 'til May is oot' is a favourite here in Scotland which means don't take off your winter clothes until May has arrived. We also have a similar one to Daisy: 'Red sky at night shepherds' delight, Red sky in the morning shepherds' warning.'
Isn't it funny that everyone sayings are weather related. Does that say...we are tired of winter or what?
I find it a bit hard to translate the Norwegian sayings to English while keepin the rhyme, so I won't try. We've also got the red sky in evening brings good weather-saying. What worries me is the saying about the weather on the 13th day of Christmas will last for 13 weeks. That means we'll heat up in mid-April. The rowan berries are supposed to predict the amount of snow in winter. Lots of berries means little snow here, but in the inland it's the other way around. We didn't have a lot of rowan berries last autumn, and we've got lots and lots of snow, so there might be something there.
I hope the whooly bear one is a good sign, saw the first 2 today. Should mean an early warm summer here. My favorite, tough one to pick but I would say, "The gulls are coming in to town, time to batton down the hatches a storm is coming." Unfortunately the gulls have moved in here in the past few years so my hatches are getting rusty.
One around here has to do with oak leaves. The underside of them is a lighter green than the tops. They say that when you see the light underside that you will get rain. Seems to work too.
Just looking at Daisy's "red sky"one. We have one about red skys too, but it means something else. "Avond rood, water in de sloot". Which translates to--"Evening red, (extra)water in the (small)canal" What this means is if one sees a red sunset there will be rain that night or the following day. Droopy's right-- it's difficult translating to give the feel and meaning...and of course, the rhyming is almost impossible. There are other ones about months: "April doet wat 'ie wil".----April does what it wants.(meaning you can get ANY kind of weather in april) "Maart roert z'n staart"---March wags it's tail(making lots of wind). "Is op Kerstmis de hemel klaar, verwacht dan een vruchtbaar jaar".--If the sky on Christmas day is clear, expect then, a fruitful year.
We have many already mentioned and a few more: When crows start to land on the ice (on the Lake) the ice isn't safe and will be gone soon. Bee's nests built up high predict lots of snow. When all the cattle in the field lay down rain is on it's way. The best fishing days are days with drizzle.
We have the ones about the cows in the fields here...or at least I do. I always thought that it had to do something with the barometric pressure. Who knows.
Here are a few weather folklore I have heard and the explanation for it (compliments of a google search). The first one should give us all hope! "A year of snow, a year of plenty." A continuous covering of snow on farmland and orchards delays the blossoming of fruit trees until the season of killing frosts is over. It also prevents the alternate thawing and freezing which destroys wheat and other winter grains. "Halo around the sun or moon, rain or snow soon."The halo around the sun or moon is a layer of cirrus clouds made of ice crystals. These ice crystals act as tiny prisms, forming a white or sometimes colorful halo around the sun or moon. This cirro-stratus cloud often indicates an approaching warm front and an associated area of low pressure. Rain or snow will not always follow, but there is a higher probability of it after a halo is seen, and the brighter the circle, the greater the probability. "Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning."In the morning, when the sun is in the east, the shower and its rainbow are in the west. As the weather in the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere moves mostly from west to east, the morning rainbow indicates that rain is moving from the west toward the observer. To check out more weather proverbs here is the link http://www.wxdude.com/proverb.html
I have told the one of about the quince When it blooms in the winter look for a cold front .Dooleys bloom just before our big snow.It always seems to mean a cold front is coming.
