Over the last month or so I have crisscrossed this great country of ours. I started in early July heading east into the Muskoka region of Ontario to compete in an Ironman 70.3 triathlon.
After spending a couple of weeks there, I returned home and did some quick gardening before heading west to Canmore, Alta. for a wedding. What a nice place. The only downside was that we happened to be there during a heatwave, with daytime highs pushing the low 30s each day, though it was a dry heat.
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Did I mention it was a really nice place, but with no air conditioning? Apparently, they do not need it as a run of several days of heat in a row does not happen often.
After coming home and doing some more catch-up gardening, my finale for the summer has taken me to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, to — you guessed it — compete in my final triathlon of the year.
What does this have to do with the weather? Besides testing my ability to forecast the weather from new areas, I get to hear local weather folklore. I always find it interesting to hear different weather sayings or words of weather wisdom as I travel. Here are some of the ones I hear most often.
Red skies
One of the most well-known sayings goes something like “red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” This saying works well and makes sense if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, north of the tropics. In this region, the prevailing winds in the upper atmosphere are from the west, which generally drive weather systems from west to east.
To get a red sunrise or sunset you need a large number of particles in the air for the sunlight to bounce off, causing us to see more of the red light. These particles can either be dust from different sources or water droplets. At night or at sunset, for us to see the sun and a red sky, the sky along the horizon must be clear or clearing and there must be moisture in the air between us and the horizon.
Since the sun sets in the west and weather systems tend to move from west to east, the clearing place near the horizon should move in our direction, hopefully leading to a nice sunny day tomorrow and thus the delight.
The opposite is true for a red sky in the morning. To see a red sky it means that again, the horizon is clear, but moisture is between us and the horizon. Since the sun rises in the east and weather systems generally move from west to east, that moisture must be moving into our region, thus the need to take warning.
Halo there
Another popular bit of weather lore around the Prairies is, “if there is a halo around the moon then rain will come soon.” While this might not always be true, there is sound weather logic behind it.
For a halo to appear around the moon, there must be high cirrus clouds, which are made up of ice crystals. These high clouds of ice crystals can refract moonlight, allowing us to see a halo of light around the moon. Often when an area of low pressure or storm system is approaching, it is preceded by these high cirrus clouds, so the saying makes sense.
I know there are several other weather sayings and I would love to examine them all. Some of these sayings or lore apply to our part of the world and some don’t. In fact, I am sure there are sayings and lore out there that are fairly local to any area of the Prairies.
If you have a favourite weather saying or lore that you would like me to explore or share, feel free to email me. Just place the words weather saying or weather lore in the subject line.
The fog of lore
Along with weather sayings that make good weather sense, there’s one that, to me, makes no sense at all yet it has been shared with me several times in the past by different farmers across the Prairies. It states: “Like snow? Count the number of August fogs.”
At first glance I thought it said “frogs” and I immediately went, what the heck? But then I remembered the emails I had received over the years about this and how certain the emailers had been about the truth of this saying.
When you look at most of the weather lore out there, it usually covers short-term weather. This one is one of those long-term predictions, and I find that the longer the time period between observation and result, the more our minds tend to make things work out the way we want them to.
When I began to think about this one I’ll admit I shrugged it off as a big pile of you-know-what. For example, valley regions tend to get a lot more fog than hilltops, so I guess these valley regions will be getting a heck of a lot more snow than the hilltops. That doesn’t make sense. To me there are just too many geographical and local influences that impact fog formation for this to hold any real weather truth.
If we were only to look at August fog events that impact a large area, we might be able to make some kind of link between August fog and winter snow. Certain weather patterns can lead to more fog formation and these general patterns could either continue into the fall and winter or lead to a different weather pattern that may or may not be a snowy pattern in winter. I just can’t see how this one could work out or how you could accurately track it.
Again, if you have some insight into this or other weather sayings or lore, or just have a weather topic you would like me to discuss, please let me know. Until next time, here’s hoping the weather in your area is just what you need.
