The Folklore

Before satellite weather pictures, the barometer, and the thermometer, and before meteorology had been thought of, most people lived and worked outdoors and observed the weather every day. These people noticed patterns, and as they discussed these patterns with other people, adages developed. Some of these have proved true over and over again.

Today, many educated people will dismiss old time weather lore as fables simply designed to explain mysteries of nature that primitive man could not explain any other way, but maybe weather folklore is something more. Why not predict the weather from what you know and what you are used to?

In a time when modern forecasters are accurate only about half of the time, most people can remember and depend on at least one weather saying their parents or grandparents swore by. Many still look to the sky at night and in the morning just to see if there's a red color, or look at the moon to see if there will be rain the next day.

Many different pieces of weather folklore have connections with this one, as they predict changes in the seasons based on atypical weather of one season. Some of them include:

Thunder in February, freeze in May.

A warm November is the sign of a bad winter.

If autumn leaves are slow to fall, prepare for a cold winter.

A warm Christmas, a cold Easter.

Thunder in the fall foretells a cold winter.

It will be a bad winter if trees keep their leaves until late in the fall.

So, now that you know the lore, check out the evidence.

.who doffs his coat on a winter's day will gladly put it on in may.

.the science.   .the evidence.

.conclusion.

.sources.

.home.

danielle chirip

GEOS 371