WEATHER WISDOM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11783, 8 November 1912, Page 2

WEATHER WISDOM.

A few simple hints on low to foretell the weather are given by the "Pall Mall Gazette." The following are a few of the more marked signs tliat were observed over a long period of years by Rear-Ad-niiral Fitzroy, and recorded by. liim in a little known manual on the barometer, which the careful researcher will doubtelss be able to obtain at the offices of the Board of Trade, by whom it was originally Accepted and issued. Whether clear or cloudy, a rosy sky at sunset presages fine weather; a red sky in the morning bad wetaher or. much wind ; a grey sky in the morning, fine weather ; a high dawn (when the first indications of daylight _are seen above a bank of clouds), wind:'a- lo\y dawn (when the day breaks on or near the horizon, the first streaks of light being very low down), fair weather.

Soft-looking or delicate cloud 6 foretell fine weather, with moderate or light breezes; hard-edged, oily-looking clouds, wind.

A dark, gloomy, blue sky is windy but •a. light, bright blue sky indicates fine weather.

A bright yellow sky at sunset presages wind ; a pale yellow, wet. Thus by the prevalence of'reel, yellow, or grey tints the coming weather "may. be foretold very nearly. Small, inkv-locking clouds foretell rain; light 6cud clouds driving. across heavy masses show wind, and rain, but if alone may indicate wind only.

High upper clouds crossing the sun, moon, or stars in a direction different from that of the lower clouds, or the wind then felt below, foretell change of wind. After fine clear weather, the first signs in the sky of a coming change arc usually light streaks', curls, wisps or mottled patches of white distant cloud, which: increase. and ate followed by .-n overcasting of murky vapour that grov.s into cloudiness. This appearance, more or less oily or watery, as wind or rain will prevail, is an infallible.-sign.' - . ' - "Light, delicate, quiet tints of colour, with soft, undefined! forms of clouds, indicate and accompany fine weather; but gaudy o runiisual hues, with hard, definitt'ly"out 1 incd clouds, foretell rain, andprobablv strong wind. Misty clouds forming or hanging on heights shmv wind and rain coming, if they remain, increase, or descend. _lf they rise or disperse, the weather will improve or become fine. .When sea-birds fly out early and far to seaward, moderate wind and fair weather -may be expected. When they hang about the" land or over it, sometimes flying inland; expect a strong wind, with stormy weather.

When birds of long flight, rooks, swallows, or others, hang about home and fly up and downy or. low. ram or wind may lie When animals seek sheltered places, instead oi spreading over their usual range; when pigs carry straw to their sties; when .smoke from chimneys does not ascend readily (or straight unward during calm), an unfavourable change is'.probable. - " Dew is an. indication, of fine weather. So is fog. Neither of these- -two-.jforma-tions occur under an overcast sky. or. when there is much wind. One.sees fog occasionally rolled away, as it were, by-wind, but seldom or never found while it is blowing. Remarkable T-learncss of atmosphere near, the horizon, and distant objects, such as hills, unusually visible.-' mav be mentioned among the signs of wet, if not wind. to. lie expected.