It’s just been days of angry weather.

When I see this type of stormy clouds I remember back to my childhood. As you got older you started to realise that in our seaside town the weather would always seem to come from over the hills and follow the river to the sea. For us that would mean the weather would first appear to the north west. That was in the direction of one of our neighbours gardens. So the following weather expression was frequently heard from my parents.

It’s luking black ower Mr Homans Potting Shed, aye get thy washing in.

When means you have just a few minutes more footy before your summoned in as the heavens have opened. If the weather ever came from over Eddie Cook’s Pigeon Loft then it was time to get the paddling pool out.

Strangely parenting forecasting from the 70s was far more accurate that the current UK Meteorological Service best guesses. Currently the weather scientists are telling us that we have light cloud and less than a 10% chance of light rain. Well tell that to the paving stones which are currently being jet washed in the nonstop monsoon.

So let’s ditch the UK’s dodgy weather science and go old school. So here are a few other old weather laws that were passed down to me.

  • Red sky at night fisherman’s delight, red sky in the morning fisherman’s warning,
  • Mackerel Clouds in the sky then the weather is going to change,
  • The Sun or Moon saying hello means that rain is on the way (saying hello means having a halo around it),
  • The greener the Rhubard leaves the worse the weather will be,
  • Wet seaweed means rain is coming (I never bought into this one as surely that just means the tide has been in recently),
  • Rain at lunch will be gone by tea (basically saying the UK weather is changeable),
  • When rain is coming the spiders will disappear,
  • Rainbows before lunch tells us that rain will be here all day,
  • Cows sit down when rain is due (must admit this is clearly true as I was watching an episode of Ben & Holly where the wise old elf foolishly took shelter under a cow when it started to rain),
  • When smoke rises the weather will be good. When it fails to rise them bad weather is due,
  • Expect a bad winter if the hedgerows produce loads of berries,
  • If you want a dry day best to have dew on the grass in the morning.

One last weather law. I had a friend whose dad was a complete nutter. So funny. I remember him telling me once about his rabbit. He explained that his rabbit would only eat carrots when it was raining. I asked what it had to eat when it was sunny and he told me with a smile – I don’t know, will tell you when we get the sun, patience lad I’ve only had the rabbit 3 years.…

So that’s me out of weather law. Can anyone add to my knowledge?

Looking at this photo I think I can confidently predict no need for sun protection….

84 thoughts on “Angry clouds”

  2. My Mum used to call them ‘drity clouds’ with such vehemence she almost spat the words out!
    Didn’t know that about rhubarb. Ours has died again so Hubby transplanted it. It might be safe from the mower for a bit now.
    When we lived in Poole we were known as the weather people as one lady would sit to see what clothes we were wearing walking the dog in the morning. If no coats, she;d put her washing on, if coats, she leave it. We confused her one day as Hubby wore a ocat and I didn’t. When she asked us why, we said the weather was changeable, and all had a good laugh.

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  4. For the red sky at night one where you were told fisherman, I was told shepherds.

    I have heard about the cows one, but the others are new to me.

    When the weatherman came on tv, an aunt if mine would cuss at the tv saying you can’t tell the weather what it’s doing. It will do what it’s like.

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  5. The only one I ever knew was the one about the red sky at night. But I agree, these weather warnings are probably way more accurate than what you get from the weatherman. (Well, maybe not all of them 🙂 ). The weather has been bad here as well. Thick, stagnant air (and no call for storms) led to torrential downpours and hail yesterday. Spooky!

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  6. I love the photos. We had rain here today as well, and with it frigging hail. Fortunately it only came down in those icy chunks for a few minutes.

    Love the weather forecast from years gone by. They are similar to some my parents would say, especially “red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morning, sailors take warning”.

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    2. In Northern California too.
      It’s been hot and my tomatoes are just getting ripe, the cucumbers are plentiful, the beans are getting put in stir frys and zucchini w eggs for breakfast.

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  11. lol… I noticed a lot of those were about rain coming. I guess here they’d all be changed to “it’s gonna be hot & dry”.

    We have “earthquake weather”… basically anything unusual. Generally October, weirdly still/quite outside, white clouds but warm temps.

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  12. I don’t know many words in Welsh, but the first words I learnt from a dear old soul was “Bwrw glaw” and I find it most useful to describe the usual regular weather we get here. 🌧

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  15. I have known the red sky at night sailor’s delight and the one about the mackerel sky. Also when the wind is blowing the tree leaves so the underside is showing it’s supposed to be a sign of rain. I have never heard about the rhubarb leaves. And I would think seaweed woudl be wet most of the time if it actually in the sea. 🙂

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    1. Oh, and this one us not about the weather, if you are lost in the middle of a field of cows, and the cows are eating grass (not chewing their cud) their heads are pointing to the south, like a giant compass.

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  23. I’ve heard of the one with the red sky in evening/morning …

    One I remember from my childhood is …
    When the rowan trees produces a lot of berries it will be a hard winter.

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  25. Where on earth do you dig these up from? I knew red sky and hanging seaweed 🙂

    We have rain currently – of course it’s not supposed to be here, but apparently in typical British Rail terminology it’s the wrong type of wind that is causing it.

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  26. Here the weather folks love to say, “scattered storms.” That means it might rain and it might not. Haha. 2 inches of rain in my gau
    ge since I went to bed 12 hours ago. Scattered showers expected all day. Here’s one I read a long time ago and think there might be something to it. If the birds are out during the rain it’s because they know it’s going to rain all day. If they are not out, they are waiting for it to clear up. Currently we are between scattered showers. I went out to harvest snow peas a few minutes ago. A mockingbird was singing it’s heart out but otherwise, the bird chatter was almost nonexistent, which is rare. I guess I’ll have to keep an ear and eye on the yard today to test the bird theory again. Not sure what it means when a deer is devouring your garden before the storm begins?? Guess it means she’s hungry.

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  27. Those clouds are amazing. They look full of water, ready to burst. We say, shepherds delight as opposed to fisherman. My one thought is … you watch peppa pig and Ben and Holly … should I be worried?

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  28. I remember the one about the cows sitting down….the folk in Wilts subscribed to that. No one ever told me this, but I had the impression that when there was going to be a storm, the tree leaves (not tea!) would show their undersides…I guess it was windy, so maybe that was partly right. I never told anyone my theory.

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