Weather lore was keen before modern-day forecasts

By KRISTY HEMMINGSEN | East Texas Edition

March 21, 2002 -- "A change in the moon brings on a change in the weather."

In the days before weather satellites and daily meteorologist reports, many people relied on weather lore sayings to determine what tomorrow would bring. Would the next day, next week, or next month be time to plant crops, plan an outdoor event, or stack up more firewood?

In the days when most people worked outdoors, they began to record patterns in the weather, and as they discussed these patterns with friends and neighbors, adages about the weather would develop.

"There are literally thousands of weather lore sayings," stated Meteorologist Jesse Moore with the National Weather Service, Fort Worth. "These are sayings that have been developed and added to for many, many years based on things people have observed with the weather, probably going back towards the beginning of time."

Minimal research on the Internet or at the library can supply anyone with thousands of weather lore sayings. Even several visitors to Country World's website offered their remembrances of weather predictions.

Many verses refer to the wind. "When the wind shifts against the sun, trust it not, for back it will run."

Some verses use the clouds as an indicator, such as, "The higher the clouds, the better the weather."

Then, in order to forecast the rain, weather lore such as "When the ass begins to bray, be sure we shall have rain that day" was developed.

Even birds have been used to predict upcoming weather conditions. One such saying, for example, is "Seagull, seagull sit on the sand. It's never good weather when you're on the land."

Moore said one of his favorite weather lore sayings is the old adage "Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." This was also the favorite saying for Billie J. Grigg of Robertson County. Grigg was one of several voluntary participants in a survey/questionnaire that was posted on the Country World website (www.countryworldnews.com) for a short period of time. Country World was interested in seeing what our subscribers had to offer in the way of their own favorite weather lore sayings.

Here are a few other examples of weather lore offered by those who responded on Country World's website:

"If it thunders in February, it will freeze in April." This was noted by Madie Maben of Scurry Country in West Central Texas and Clyde Willis.

A contribution from Joseph Janak of Lavaca County in South Central Texas explained that on Aug. 10, if there's a south wind, a warm autumn is expected, but if there's a north wind, autumn will probably be cool to cold.

Shanna Hoskison of Delta County said she has always heard that when there's a ring around the moon, it's probably going to snow.

Meteorologist Moore said these sayings, and plenty more, are what helped people remember what they could possibly expect from the weather. He admitted some sayings can be simply explained, while others may take a minute or two to understand, and maybe even the next year to be accurate.