H. H. C. Dunwoody

“ When sparkling lamps their sputtering lights advance,
And in their sockets oily bubbles dance. Lamps, from the manner in which they burn, forebode weather. Before rain they burn less bright, the flame snaps and crackles, and a sort of fungous excrescence grows from the wicks, which Virgil was mindful to put among his prognostics of rain and wind. ”

“ When after sunset the western sky is of a whitish-yellow, and this tint extends a great height, it is probable that it will rain during the night or next day. Gaudy or unusual hues with hard, definitely outlined clouds, foretell rain and probably wind. If the sun before setting appears diffuse and of a brilliant white, it foretells storm. If it sets in a sky slightly purple, the atmosphere near the zenith being of a bright blue, we may rely upon fine weather. ”

“ Slowly falling barometer, high and rising temperature, sky of dull, whitish appearance, resembling haze near horizon; cirrus clouds followed by dense masses of cumulus; wind in light puffs from an easterly direction. ”

“ A January thaw is a sign for a July freshet.
If the grass grows green in January, it will grow the worse for it all the year.
In the Shepherd’s Almanac for 1676, among the observations on the month of January we find the following: “Some say that if on the 12th of January the sun shines it foreshows much wind. Others predict by Saint Paul’s day, saying if the sun shine it betokens a good year; if it rain or snow, indifferent; if misty it predicts great dearth; if it thunder, great winds and death of people that year.” ”

“ Frost—Cockle.
Frost has never been known to catch the cockle or blackberry in bloom.
Fennel.
When fennel blooms, frost follows.
Fall Apples.
If the fall apples are one-sided, with thick, rough skins, a severe winter may be expected.
Grasses.
Grasses of all kinds are loaded with seeds before a severe winter.
Goat’s-beard.
When goat’s-beard closes its petals at midday, expect rain.
Hay.
Better it is to rise betimes
And make hay while the sun shines,
Than to believe in tales and lies
Which idle monks and friars devise. ”

“ At sea-side places in summer very often “the wind is in by day and out by night,” which is the equivalent of the land and sea breezes of the tropics. Like two preceding prognostics, it is only in anticyclones that local currents of air, probably due to unequal heating of sea and land, can override the general circulation of the atmosphere in this country.
Sometimes in winter, on the southern side of the anticyclone, bitter east winds, with a black-looking sky, will prevail for several days together, when it may be truly said:
When the wind is in the east
’Tis neither good for man nor beast. ”

“ Stratus or fall cloud is a fog or mist, so called from being strewed along the ground, and from its consisting of particular kinds of clouds, which fall at night-time to the ground. A stratus in the morning, in autumn, often ushers in some of the finest days we enjoy. ”

“ One of the first indications that we are on the edge of a great storm consists in a slight turbidness of the atmosphere which would scarcely attract the attention of an ordinary observer, but which is sufficient to cause solar halos during the day and lunar halos during the night, if there is a moon. During the colder months of the year, our great storms are usually preceded by a rise of the barometer above the mean and a veering of the wind to the northeast. ”

“ The cracking of tables and chairs indicates rain or frost.
Thunder.
Abundance depends upon sour milk; meaning that thunder-storms aid crops.
Thunder-storms almost always occur when the weather is hot for the season; they are generally caused by a cold wind coming over a place where the air is much heated. They do not cool the air; it is the wind that brings them which makes the weather cooler. If a thunder-storm comes up from the east, the weather will not be cooler after it. This will not happen till another storm comes up from the west. ”

“ If the spider works during rain, it is an indication that the weather will soon be clear.
When the spider cleans its web fair weather is indicated.
If spider webs fly in the autumn with a south wind, expect east winds and fine weather.
Spiders generally change their webs once every twenty-four hours. If they make the change between 6 and 7 p. m., expect a fair night. If they change their web in the morning, a fine day may be expected. If they work during rain, expect fine weather soon, and the more active and busy the spider the finer will be the weather. ”

“ Rain storms are preceded from twelve to forty-eight hours by barometer falling steadily, increasing humidity, high temperature, with wind east or south, cirro-stratus clouds in southern or western horizon, and eastern horizon obscured by haze.
Red sky at sunrise indicates strong winds; if humidity is much below the mean, the color is usually a brilliant scarlet; if humidity is high, the color is more crimson, with a purple tinge and rain follows. When wind backs from northwest to southwest, clear weather follows. ”

“ As, too, the cat is supposed not only to have a knowledge of the state of the weather, but a certain share in the arrangement of it, it is considered by sailors to be most unwise to provoke a cat. Hence they do not much like to see a cat on board at all, and when one happens to be more frisky than usual they have a popular saying that the cat has a gale of wind in her tail. A charm often resorted to for raising a storm is to throw a cat overboard ”

“ Hogs crying and running unquietly up and down with hay or litter in their mouths, foreshow a storm to be near at hand.
When birds of long flight—rooks, swallows, or others—hang about home and fly up and down, or low, rain or wind may be expected. ”

“ Of course those persons who live in the neighborhood of large towns labor under a great disadvantage, as the sky has nearly always a dirty appearance, and is frequently obscured by smoke. For this reason London is about the worst place to reside in for studying the weather.
We have only been able to give the rudiments of the new method of considering prognostics, for the method is capable of great extension, and we hope that we may succeed in interesting some of the Fellows sufficiently to induce them to observe prognostics in conjunction with the daily weather charts. ”

“ When the sun burns more than usual, rain may be expected.
During the night white frost is formed, owing to calm radiation:
A white frost never lasts more than three days; a long frost is a black frost.
Frost suddenly following heavy rain seldom lasts long.
As the day advances after a white frost, the air becomes dull from the influence of the on-coming depression; whence the saying—
When the frost gets into the air it will rain.
During the very fine weather, on the east side of a wedge-shaped area there is often great visibility with a cloudless sky:
The further the sight the nearer the rain. ”

“ When in the morning the dew is heavy and remains long on the grass, when the fog in the valleys is slowly dissipated and lingers on the hill-side, when the clouds seem to be taking a higher place, and when a few loose cirro-strati float gently along, serene weather may confidently be expected for the greater part of that day.
Fig. 5.—Anticyclone Prognostics.
These all refer to night radiation, mist being dispersed by the sun’s rays. Fine, light, genial weather raises the spirits and exerts an enlivening influence not only on human beings but also on animals, birds, insects, &c. ”

“ Winter storms come from the northeast and southeast. Those from the northeast are preceded, for several days, by brisk wind from that direction, rapidly rising barometer, slowly falling temperature, increasing humidity, with stratus clouds moving slowly from the northeast until the whole sky is covered and a dense mist begins to fall, which soon becomes rain as the clouds approach the earth. ”

“ An unusual twinkling of stars is observed, and a larger number of them are visible, extending nearly to the horizon. The first clouds are generally cirrus, from the west or southwest, followed often by haze, which gradually thickens and lowers into a stratus, forming a heavy bank in the southwest, which gradually extends over and into the northeast, the whole mass deepening and lowering until nimbus clouds form and appear moving with the wind. Storms of the greatest severity and duration are generally with the wind from north-northeast to east-northeast, and rapidly increase in violence. ”

“ In cold and early winters the chipmunk is very abundant on the south shore of Lake Superior, and are always housed for the winter in October. In short and mild winters they are seen until the 1st of December.
Cattle.
When a storm threatens, if cattle go under trees, it will be a shower; if they continue to feed, it will probably be a continuous rain. (New England.)
When cows fail their milk, expect stormy and cold weather.
When cows bellow in the evening, expect snow that night.
In Texas, when cattle hasten to timber, expect a “norther.” ”

“ If the wind is northeast three days without rain,
Eight days will pass before south wind again. The wind is usually very light in force.
It is said to be a sign of continued good weather when the wind so changes during the day as to follow the sun.
If wind follows sun’s course, expect fair weather.
This “veering with the sun,” as it is called, is the ordinary diurnal variation of the wind, which in this country is very obvious with the shallow gradients of an anticyclone. ”

“ In winter a storm usually follows a falling barometer, with south wind. If barometer falls one-tenth of an inch between 7 a. m. and 12 m., bad weather follows within thirty hours. In winter, high temperatures are generally followed by bad weather, especially if accompanied by winds varying from northwest to northeast.
Increase of humidity between 12 m. and 3 p. m. is usually followed by rain before night on same day.
Backing of wind to southward, with falling barometer, nearly always followed by bad weather.
All wavy forms of cirro-stratus are sure signs of an approaching storm. ”

“ A windy winter you shall see.
Windy weather in each week,
And hard tempests strong and thick.
The summer shall be good and dry,
Corn and beast shall multiply.
(Copied from old MS.) A green Christmas makes a full graveyard.
A green Christmas indicates a white Easter.
Candlemas Day.
If Candlemas day be fair and clear,
There’ll be two winters in that one year. On Candlemas day the bear, badger, or woodchuck comes out to see his shadow at noon; if he does not see it he remains out; but if he does see it he goes back to his hole for six weeks, and cold weather continues six weeks longer. ”

“ Blue-fish, pike, and other fish jump with head towards the point where a storm is frowning.
The approach of blue-fish to the Middle Atlantic coast is a true indication of a shift of wind to the north within twenty-four or thirty-six hours. The observer furnishing the above states that he has not known this saying to have failed once in the past twenty-five years, and assigns as a reason that in autumn all fish go south, and the blue-fish, it appears, is able to anticipate this change and approaches the coast, where it may strike the feed-fish on their way south. ”

“ ANTICYCLONE PROGNOSTICS. Having spoken of cyclones, we shall now direct our attention to anticyclones. In the daily weather charts we sometimes see but two or three isobars, and these are a considerable distance apart, and extend over a large area. The pressure is highest in the centre, and gradually diminishes outwards. The air is calm and cold in the central area, but on the outskirts the wind blows in the direction of the hands of a watch. These are the special features of an anticyclone. The weather in an anticyclone is almost the opposite of that in a depression ”

“ Keeps not the head dry. At the same time there is often great “visibility” with a hard overcast sky, and moderately dry air, in which the stratus seems to play the part of a sunshade, for as soon as the sun comes out the clearness of distant objects diminishes. This visibility must not be confounded with the visibility already described with a cloudless sky, which occurs with wedge-shaped isobars. Simultaneously we often find “audibility.”
If the noise of a steamer or railway train is heard at a great distance, rain is predicted. ”

“ After a wet day the whole sky often clears at night. This is not a certain sign of fair weather. The clouds may, and often do, form just as heavily after sunrise next morning.
Oak Trees.
When oak trees bend in January, good crops may be expected.
Ocean.
There are various prognostics deducible from the appearance of the ocean. When the surface of the sea is rough without any wind blowing at the time, expect a gale before long; for the wind already blowing in some distant part of the ocean is the cause of the swell imparted to the sea. ”

“ Ears, when there is a tingling noise, or what is called a singing in them, afford thereby a sign of a change of weather, not simply 108of rain, as has been said, but of barometrical pressure in general. The sudden increase of pressure, like the descent from high mountains, or from balloons, causes in many persons a temporary deafness and roaring in the ears. A sudden fall of the barometer affects also the ears, but in a different manner, like mounting a high hill. ”

“ Now, with regard to the prognostics with reference to Fig. 2, where 12the characteristic weather in the different portions of a depression are given in a diagrammatic form, it will be seen that the first indication of a coming change is the appearance of a halo round the sun or moon in the cirro-stratus clouds. Hence,
When round the moon there is a brugh,
The weather will be cold and rough. The moon with a circle brings water in her beak.
Halos predict a storm (rain and wind or snow and wind) at no great distance, and the open side of the halo tells the quarter from which it may be expected. ”

“ Rain will from the clouds be spilled. When ants are situated in low ground, their migration may be taken as an indication of approaching heavy rains.
Expect stormy weather when ants travel in lines, and fair weather when they scatter.
If in the beginning of July the ants are enlarging and building up their piles, an early and cold winter is at hand.
An open ant-hole indicates clear weather; a closed one an approaching storm.
Ants, Crickets, Gnats, etc.
Ants are very busy; gnats bite; crickets are lively; spiders come out of their nests, and flies gather in houses just before rain. ”