General Interest

Most people know some interesting facts about the weather. It is often a topic that is included in conversations. There are also often strange things that people believe about the weather. Here are just a few sayings and facts.

Weather Sayings

Have you ever thought about how many sayings you know about the weather? We all know lots of them. Why do you think there are so many? Well, we have to spend most of our time in contact with the weather. It influences the clothes we wear, the way we heat our buildings, the activities which we can do and much, much more. Below are just a few examples of unofficial weather forecasting.
A rhyme which many people know is -
Red sky at night,
Shepherd's delight.
Red sky in morning,
Shepherd's warning.
Try asking an adult what it means. Did their parents ever say it to them? Why would shepherds be especially interested in the weather?

Unusual Weather Predictors

Another idea which people think will help them to say what the weather is going to be like is just as surprising. Some people look at pine cones. If they are closed they say that it will be fine weather. If they are opened up it will be wet weather. Try it and see if it works

This picture shows a Weather House. It is about thirty years old. At the time when it was bought most houses had one of these. When the lady comes out it is going to be fine, dry weather. When the man is out it is going to rain. You may realise that this is not so good at predicting the weather as telling you what the weather is doing at the moment.

Weather Sightings

Although you probably will not believe it, this is a picture of a mini-tornado. It was taken in Aberystwyth, Wales, in August 1999. It was out at sea, and faded away before it hit land where it could have done some damage. Although the picture is poor, it does show you that if you know what you might see, you have more chance of seeing it. Other people, not interested in the weather, will not even have noticed this.

Many images of weather are very pretty. They often have regular patterns. They cannot always be explained. The image on the left was on the playground on a frosty day. The design was made up of ice crystals.