Weather
Signs, Clouds, Vocabulary, and Famous Poems About the Weather
WEATHER SIGNS
METEOROLOGISTS use Doppler radar, weather balloons, satellites, and computers to give fairly accurate predictions of what the weather will be like in the near future. But even before we had computerized weather forecasts, we had ways to interpret and predict the weather. Generations ago, people passed down their knowledge about weather signs through rhymes and sayings they taught to their children. As it turns out, those rhyming proverbs based on the observations and wisdom of sailors, farmers, and other outdoorspeople are grounded not only in experience but also in science. So if you’re out camping, or hiking, or traveling on foot in nature, far away from technology, you can use some of that lore to determine a fairly reliable reading of the weather. Here are some of the most well known rhymes about weather signs.
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning”
The various colors of the sky are created by rays of sunlight that are split into colors of the spectrum as they bounce off water vapor and dust particles in our atmosphere. When the atmosphere is filled with lots of dust and moisture, the sunlight coming through it makes the sky appear reddish. This high concentration of particles usually indicates high pressure and stable air coming in from the west, and since weather systems usually move from west to east, that means you’ll have good weather for the night. When the sun rises in the eastern sky looking red, that indicates a high water and dust content in the atmosphere, which basically means that a storm system may be moving in your direction. So if you notice a red sky in the morning, pack your umbrella.
“Ring around the moon, rain or snow soon.”
You may have noticed some nights it looks like there’s a ring around the moon. That halo, which can also form around the sun, is a layer of cirrus clouds composed of ice crystals that reflect the moon’s light like prisms. This layer of clouds are not rain or snow-producing clouds, but they sometimes show up as a warm front and low pressure area approaches, which can mean inclement weather. The brighter the ring, the greater the chance of rain or snow.
“Clear moon, frost soon.”
When the moon sits in a clear, cloudless sky, lore has it that frost is on its way. The weather science behind the saying explains that in a clear atmosphere, with no clouds to keep the heat on earth from radiating into space, a low-temperature night without wind encourages the formation of frost. When clouds cover the sky, they act as a blanket, keeping in the sun’s heat absorbed by the earth during the day.
“A year of snow, a year of plenty.”
This one seems a bit counter-intuitive, but in fact a season of continuous snow is better for farmland and trees than a season of alternating warm and cold weather. When there’s snow throughout the winter, that delays the blossoming of trees until the cold season is fully over. Otherwise, the alternate thawing and freezing that can come with less stable winter weather destroys fruit-bearing trees and winter grains.
“Rainbow in the morning gives you fair warning.”
Rainbows always appear in the part of the sky opposite the sun. Most weather systems move from west to east, so a rainbow in the western sky, which would occur in the morning, signifies rain—it’s giving you “fair warning” about the rainstorm that may follow. (A rainbow in the eastern sky, conversely, tells you that the rain has already passed.)
CLOUDS
THE TERMS for categorizing clouds were developed by Luke Howard, a London pharmacist and amateur meteorologist, in the early 1800s. Before this, clouds were merely described by how they appeared to the viewer: gray, puffy, fleece, towers and castles, white, dark. Shortly before Howard came up with his cloud names, a few other weather scientists started devising cloud terminology of their own. But it was ultimately Howard’s names, based on Latin descriptive terms, that stuck.
Howard named three main types of clouds: cumulus, stratus, and cirrus. Clouds that carried precipitation he called “nimbus,” the Latin word for rain.
Cumulus is Latin for “heap” or “pile,” so it makes sense that cumulus clouds are recognizable by their puffy cotton-ball-like appearance. These types of clouds are formed when warm and moist air is pushed upward, and their size depends on the force of that upward movement and the amount of water in the air. Cumulus clouds that are full of rain are called cumulonimbus.
Stratus clouds are named for their layered, flat, stretched-out appearance, as “stratus” is the Latin word for layer. These clouds can look like a huge blanket across the sky.
Cirrus clouds are named for their wispy, feathery look. “Cirrus” means “curl of hair,” and looking at cirrus clouds you can see why Luke Howard thought to describe them that way. These clouds form only at high altitudes and are so thin that sunlight can pass all the way through them.
Nimbus clouds, the rain clouds, can have any structure, or none at all. If you’ve seen the sky on a rainy day and it looks like one big giant grey cloud, you’ll know what we mean.
WEATHER VOCABULARY
Air pressure
Here’s a fun fact: air is actually a fluid. Like other fluids, it has internal pressure due to the force of Earth’s gravity. Measured at sea level, the air weighs 14.7 pounds per square inch. Air pressure gets lower with increasing altitude.
Alberta Clipper
A fast-moving snow storm originating from the Canadian Rockies and moving quickly across the northern United States, bringing with it gusting winds and chilly Arctic air.
Barometer
An instrument measuring atmospheric pressure, which can predict weather changes.
Chinook
A type of warm, downslope wind in the Rocky Mountains, usually occurring after an intense cold spell, and capable of making the temperature rise by as much as 40°F in a matter of minutes.
Humidity
The amount of moisture in the air. You’ve probably heard the expression, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”—meant to convey that the oppressive moisture in the air is what makes hot weather so uncomfortable. But even in the driest, hottest desert, there is always some water vapor in the air. There are two ways to measure humidity: Absolute humidity and relative humidity. Absolute humidity is the percentage of moisture actually present in the air, while relative humidity is absolute humidity divided by the amount of water that could be present in the air. Relative humidity is what people are complaining about when they say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”—because relative humidity indicates the amount of sweat that can evaporate from the skin.
Mean Temperature
The average of temperature readings taken over a specified amount of time.
Wind
Wind is the air in natural motion, a current of air moving along or parallel to the ground. We can feel the wind, and see the effects of wind, but we can’t see the wind itself—except as it appears in meteorological pictures, as in the swirling spirals we see on weather maps when a hurricane is present. The way the wind blows depends on the atmosphere around it: in the presence of high and low pressure, the wind blows in a circular pattern, clockwise around a high pressure cell and counterclockwise around a low.
FAMOUS POEMS ABOUT WEATHER
Who has seen the wind?
by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro’.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.
Fog
By Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
The fog comes on little cat feet.
It sits looking over harbour and city on silent haunches and then moves on.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed and gazed but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
The Cloud
By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother’s breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night ’tis my pillow white,
While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning, my pilot, sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits;
Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The Spirit he loves remains;
And I all the while bask in Heaven’s blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,
And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead;
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit
In the light of its golden wings.
And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,
Its ardors of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of Heaven above,
With wings folded I rest, on mine aery nest,
As still as a brooding dove.
That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o’er my fleece like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent’s thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind built tent,
Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.
I bind the Sun’s throne with a burning zone,
And the Moon’s with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim
When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge like shape,
Over a torrent sea,
Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof,
The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,
Is the million colored bow;
The sphere fire above its soft colors wove,
While the moist Earth was laughing below.
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.