Cold weather

“ The water absorbs heat during the summer, which it slowly gives off on the approach of cold weather, warming the atmosphere in its vicinity, and preventing the occurrence of early frosts in the fall along the shore-border from five to ten miles wide. ”

“ The greater part of the Temperate Zone, in which we live, is peculiar in having frequent and rapid changes of temperature, not only from season to season, but from day to day, and during a single day. In winter, we are apt to have a warm wind immediately after a spell of crisp cold weather. In summer, cloudy, cool days come as a sudden relief when we have been suffering from intense heat, with brilliant sunshine. ”

“ Wind you may have, and sometimes fog, but extremes of either heat or cold, never! Besides other blessings in this particular spot of this wonderful [210] land you can also choose your own temperature. If you like warm weather, walk in the sun. If you like cold weather, walk in the shade. ”

“ If the wind changes to the northeast or north, expect cold weather.
If there be northeast or east winds in the spring, after a strong increase of heat, and small clouds appear in the different parts of the sky, or if the wind changes from east to south at the appearance of clouds preceded by heat, expect heavy rains. ”

“ That, as in the polar regions, and whether the sun be present or absent, or obscured by clouds, and by night as well as by day, the changes from warm to cold and from cold to warm are sudden and great, and that the latter are connected with the fall of rain and snow—that every where in winter it moderates to storm. ”

“ The snow would, however, thaw with the warmth of the sun, and so restore the temperature as before. The bracing quality of the climate mostly consists just in those variations of cool nights and warm days, and the occasional days of comparatively cold, boisterous weather. ”

“ During the day, however, the weather grew considerably warmer; and when the twenty-second came, bright and clear, though still cold, one could take a jaunt with some comfort. The sun shone from a cloudless sky, and having put on my warm rubber boots, I waded out through the deep snow to the woods. ”

“ We now know that the forceful, dominating peoples come out of the regions where the heat is not so great as to debilitate, nor the cold so fierce as to deaden the mental and the physical faculties; but rather from the region of the thoroughfare of the great circum-polar storm tracks, where there are frequent changes of weather from sunshine to clouds, and where there is a fairly wide difference in temperature between night and day and between winter and summer. ”

“ The weather is getting colder every day, and the shop windows are getting full of snow-shoes, mocassins, etc. I hear very different stories about the winter. Some people say it is so cold that the rain freezes into icicles as it comes down from the clouds, and so forms pillars which you can climb up and skate about overhead. And others say it’s so jolly mild in the coldest weather that you’ve only got to put a little snow in the fire and it will soon melt. ”

“ At the small depth of thirty inches below the surface, no difference can be found between the heat of the day and the cold of the night. In a well sixty feet deep no difference is perceivable between the hottest summer and the coldest winter-day, for below the surface of the earth the differences of temperature do not exist. What we call Weather is but a state of the atmosphere, and depends solely upon the wind. ”

“ In these days too, one is thankful to anything that gives a stir to existence, apart from the weary newspapers. It is, I think, one of the few merits of winter that spots, at other times tame to flatness, seem in fierce, or exceptionally cold{82} weather to revert to an older, and a wilder condition. Snow admittedly recreates everything; our most familiar paths and shrubberies, nay our very stable runnels, growing quite arctic and hyperborean-looking under its disguise. ”

“ In the winter it is cold, in the summer exceedingly hot, and during the changes of the seasons of a treacherous weather difficult to surpass. The social atmosphere was no more genial at the period with which we deal. ”

“ We have had a week of severe weather; generally, the extreme cold does not last longer than three days at one time. There is a white frost, however, this morning on the trees: the forerunner of a thaw. Walked, as usual, though not far; in such weather one dues not care to be
out long at a time. ”

“ It is a common Observation, and a very true one, that there is usually fair Weather before a settled course of Rain. The Winds that bring the dark rainy Clouds that obscure the Sky, and cause dull cloudy Weather, often raise these Vapours to such a height, that they are attracted into the cold Region above our Sight, till being condensed there, they fall down upon us again in Snow or Rain, according to our Author's Observation. ”

“ RULES FOR FORETELLING THE WEATHER.
A RISING BAROMETER.
A “Rapid” rise indicates unsettled weather.
A “Gradual” rise indicates settled weather.
A “Rise,” with dry air, and cold increasing in summer, indicates wind from northward; and if rain has fallen, better weather is to be expected.
A “Rise,” with moist air and a low temperature, indicates wind and rain from northward.
A “Rise,” with southerly wind, indicates fine weather.
A STEADY BAROMETER,
With dry air and a seasonable temperature, indicates a continuance of very fine weather. ”

“ The northeast wind, which in summer it is so pleasant to hear blowing past one’s ears, because one knows it is a sure sign of settled weather, is, in autumn, only a sign of steady cold. To our couple the weathercock was really a funeral standard. ”

“ The direction from which the wind is blowing usually indicates what the weather will be for the day,—wet or dry, hot or cold,—but here is a rhymed prediction which puts all such prophecies to shame:—
“The West wind always brings wet weather
The East wind wet and cold together,
The South wind surely brings us rain,
The North wind blows it back again. ”

“ But when the Air grows thick by Degrees, and the Sun, Moon, and Stars shine dimmer and dimmer, then it is like to rain six Hours usually.
RAIN is, properly speaking, a Multitude of small watery Drops, falling from the upper Air at different Seasons. When the upper Regions become cold of a sudden, the watery Clouds are condensed and fall in hasty Showers. ”

“ If the reader will take the trouble to compare the degree of heat, during the hot sultry weather we had at the beginning of this month, with the extreme cold which we now endured, he will conceive how severely so rapid a change must have been felt by us. ”

“ The autumn weather to October 12 had been remarkably fine and warm. From then to the end of the year, grey mild weather prevailed, with but little rain and still less frost. During the first thirteen days of January there was frost with a little snow; then rain to January 24, followed by six days of hard frost. After this, harsh foggy weather with rain prevailed till February 23; then five days of frost; a fortnight of dark harsh weather; and spring weather to the end of the first fortnight in April. The second fortnight of April, however, was cold, with snow and frost. ”

“ As the days begin to shorten
The heat begins to scorch them. Dark Clouds.
If the sun sets in dark, heavy clouds, expect rain next day.
77If at sunrise there are many dark clouds seen in the west and remain there, rain will fall on that day.
Double Setting.
Sun setting double indicates much rain. Red sun indicates fair weather. Orange sun usually foul weather. Mock suns in winter are usually followed by intense cold.
Dull Color.
When the sun appears a pale or dull color, expect rain.
Drawing Water.
Rays of the sun appearing in a cloud forebode rain. ”

“ And by God, what a day! You know the kind of day that generally comes some time in March when winter suddenly seems to give up fighting. For days past we'd been having the kind of beastly weather that people call 'bright' weather, when the sky's a cold hard blue and the wind scrapes you like a blunt razor-blade. Then suddenly the wind had dropped and the sun got a chance. You know the kind of day. Pale yellow sunshine, not a leaf stirring, a touch of mist in the far distance where you could see the sheep scattered over the hillsides like lumps of chalk. ”

“ Take long walks in stormy weather, or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary. ”

“ If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries—the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top—ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dewdrops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume. ”

“ The mere atmospheric conditions and extremes of temperature in the varying seasons suffice to break down the health of all but the most hardy, for winter succeeded summer before the march ended and vice versa, so that arctic cold alternated with tropical heat, and deep snow with burning sun and torrential rains. ”

“ As the temperature suddenly varies with the change of the wind, from the most intense cold to thaw, or a mild day is succeeded by a frosty night, so also the falls of rain or snow are generally sudden and excessive. ”

“ But in those countries, such as ours, where in winter the air even at the surface is sometimes very cold, the snow falls to the ground, and lies there as a white covering, until returning warmth melts it away. ”

“ In his own country, where the cold is very severe in winter, its habit is to become perfectly unconscious, exactly as if dead, and in that state it can endure the rigour of the climate and wake up when the temperature rises. ”

“ There is warmth in snow, as you are well aware, cold being a negative existence, and, so long as they were below the surface, they could not be reached by the wind that swept across the dismal waste. Then, too, the change in the temperature was in the right direction as affecting their comfort, so there was little fear of suffering before morning. ”

“ Even in the warmest season as you approach the grey, foaming mountain torrents, the air becomes icy cold. In the course of a short stroll you may feel the heat of summer in some sheltered nook, and a few steps farther on encounter harsh autumn with its cutting winds. ”

“ Round about a Spring in Winter. We dwellers in the northern hemisphere naturally think of winter as cold, and shudder at the idea of plunging into the water at this season. The common demand is, if cold must be endured, let it at least be rid of moisture. But all animals are not of this way of thinking. To avoid the cutting blasts of the north wind, the stinging sleet, the pelting hail, and driving snow, many a creature boldly plunges in or hovers about the sparkling waters of every bubbling spring. ”

“ I know, by the very intensity of the cold, that a change is at hand. We seldom have more than three very severe days running, and this is the third. At all events, it is much warmer at night in this country than during the day; the wind drops, and the frost is more bearable. ”

“ Then begins the cold; it has been bitterly cold all day, with darkness; the wind has lulled, and the frost has come out of the cold, grey sky with still, silent rigour. If you have a thermometer placed in the snow at your head the spirit will have shrunken back into the twenties and thirties below zero; and just when the dawn is stealing over the eastern pine tops it will not unfrequently be into the forties. ”

“ The cold’s got an edge like a jackknife — it must be forty below;
Leastways that’s what it seems like — it cuts so fierce to the bone.
The wind’s getting real ferocious; it’s heaving and whirling the snow ”

“ For weeks the country folk, wise in weather lore, have been shaking their heads of a morning or an evening and saying, "The air is full of snow!" No one of them can tell you how he knows it, but he knows. "It feels like snow," and that does not mean that the air is of a certain coldness or chilliness, dampness or dryness, though there is definite balance of these conditions when we say it. It means that there is in it another quality, too subtle to be defined, that touches some equally subtle sixth sense which life in the open begets in most of us. ”

“ Rapidly falling barometer, rising temperature, and light southerly winds indicate rain or snow, according to season of year.
Falling barometer, rising temperature, with wind from northeast or east, indicate snow.
Fine cirrus and cirro-stratus, floating low, presage wind.
Haze in night or early morning, or cumulus clouds, sharp and well defined, moving from west or southwest, indicate fair weather.
When snow is falling, and the wind backs from east to north, with decreasing velocity, clear weather may be expected. ”

“ As the warm season advances in summer, and evaporation from the earth is less than the rainfall, there is less and less moisture in the air, when, of course, the conditions for cloud formation, especially inland, are not so favorable as in the early spring or summer. Frequently there comes a time when we have a long season of dry, settled weather. ”

“ But either the ordinary red-cloud surroundings at sunrise, or the western foreglow at rarer intervals, betokens to the weather-prophet wet and gloomy weather. The farmer and the sailor do not like the sight, they depend so much on favourable weather conditions. ”

“ As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the northerly climate of England, where the summers are often so defective in warmth and sunshine as not to ripen the fruits of the earth so well as might be wished, I shall be more concise in my account of the severity of a summer season, and so make a little amends for the prolix account of the degrees of cold, and the inconveniences that we suffered from late rigorous winters. ”