WEATHER LORE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 19 December 1922, Page 4

WEATHER LORE.

HINTS FOR THE HOLIDAYS,

THE BAROMETER TAFPEHI

" AX ISXOCEXT DELUSION.

•Ob, thats the one » e keep {or menbers to Up; the real on?i aia £ oFu-e, cphuned the dub steward to tfe new member who remarked that markably steady ior days. X ine out o! te„ cannot resist the temptation to operate on the face of the barometer jwith an inquisitive forefinger. To see the way some of these questioners ot the meteorological oracle peck A th. ga-syou would think the unpresMOn that the works r something l,ke those of a very &Z that goes as long a3 you shak t. They don t seem to be aware that the actual movement of the metal vacuum that works the indicator is almost infinitesimal, and that the war I that multiplies the action so that it can ;be translated into something readable on the graduated scale is of a most delicate nature. It takes a person with good eyesight t0 detect the links of the tiny chain that moves the barometer hand. Tapping the barometer as energetically as some people do is about equivalent to holding up a two-months' old infant by the feet and givin» it half a dozen "jiggety-jigs" as though you were shaking something down in a sack. AX UNRELIABLE ORACLE, '

And the amusing part about this tipping habit is that ninety-niae men out of ;i hundred are not a whit the wiser when the indicator recovers from it, shock and comes to rest. The mo«t they can tell is whether the glass is rising or falling, but that in itself is useless; for the meaning of a rise varies according to it? nature and also according to the locality. The "Ha, a rising glass; it's going to be fine'' school would get a shock, for instance, if they happened to be yachting down Gaible End Foreland way, with a light northerly Mowing, and then a calm, followed by s rapidlyrising glass. In a very short while the gentlemen would be bucking into a "southerly buster"' that would make them lose faith in the up and doun theory of the barometer.

You have only to stand in the Testibule at the Aukland post office to see how wide-spread is the cult of rt&dnf tbe barometer. All sorts of people oome along and peer knowingly at the purple ink trail left on the barogram by the little machine, which is cased injhus and bears the polite prohibition, Thaw do not tap." All but a very infinitesimal proportion are no doubt of the "rise and fall" school of readers—yon are probably one yourself, and find It just about as successful as following the weather forecasts of the meteorologist —but a man must have a few hobbies in this dull world, and that of foretelling the weather is one of the most innocent DON'T LAUGH. 1 It must be an atavistic desire, this rather pardonable foible of foretelling the weather. Country people have the faculty almost as naturally as animals and birds, but it is one of those rural gifts or habits or whatever yon'like to call it that the townsman' soon loses. So that next time Brown taps the barometer, his head on one side like a wise bird, don't laugh at is only obeving an instinct that is a reminder of the'days before man sold his freedom for a weekly pay envelope. But if y° u reallv wish" to become learned in weather* lore it would be much more sensible to follow the methods of the countryman. Life is too short for m«i of us to acquire the other way that includes barometers, wind guages an decimals. Now that the holidays are coming on, the query. -'Will it be fine!" will f* asked half a dozen times a week, so i mav not be out of place to give a »» hints for answering the question. » e will follow the lines of the countryman. Watch the skv at sunset. II there are pale tints, wind and ram may « counted upon to follow soon. There n a good deal of truth in the old saiga that—

Red skv at nißht is the shep"«rf'i «Jj£ f '- lted skv In the morning, shepherds wanfflf. If the sun should sink to rest in i bed of brightlv hued clouds, then a toe dav on the morrow may be looked Mr. A "grev sunrise, to those who are up mificiently early to observe, is anotiier indication of a fine day.

TELL-TALE CLOUDS. A copper skv, either at night or » the morning, is not a happy sign, anra conditions usually lead'to thnnderstorms, accompanied by heavy ram. Another precursor of this type weather is great towering, heaped-up clouds, with a black and gloomy base. Firing men will tel* you that tttj tower high above other clouds, sometimes to the extent of two miles, ana arc beautiful yet terrifying things to behold. , , j If von are anxious to know What M" of an afternoon may be expected, "ep an eve on the clouds in the morningShould the clouds be of the smalt woollv tvpe. with flat bases, there W be fine weather. If they are OT«tt*» clouds—massive and conical in WJK~ aptvarinz near and showing HO »#» of disappearing by noon, then shown are likelv. . ~ „i A certain fign of a coming: speU « fine weather is when clouds which M« overcast Hie sk> dear away in the fora of an arch. , _,-„fi tf there should happentobe.«g when v..ij are away on holiday «j» iri.im.i ii I- a -me sign of wet weather. T',- halo is itself produced by pnj .i,,i,ai.,| v.ater between the earth and pit in t!.c circle the nearer are the rau. clouds. ~„ ,w Uvove all v ] 'f alwavs scan the -*." in the dire, ,i'n' from 'which the is b10w:,,-. 1 ause that is where •* changed conditions will come from-