Interesting Weather Lore

snow ghost

Just wondering if anyone around Ireland - or further afield - has any local weather lore that they have heard off the old people, or has been passed down in the vicinity, etc?

Someone told me around here, after I saw an otter, that the old peeps used to say that if you see an otter it is a sign of very cold weather... that was about week before the beginning of the recent cold snap in December. I presume by seeing an otter they mean in a fairly populous place as oppossed to their normal secluded habitat (and that you weren't out otter spotting).

Must admit I find it quite interesting... that said I'd be very sceptical that any longterm forecast could be predicted by plants or wildlife behaviour, etc. But in the short term I'd be confident that animals - wth their different senses and instincts - may be more tuned into the weather than we can comprehend. And as such can indicate what is on the immediate horizon.

So if anyone has any interesting weather lore... would be good to hear about it.

Deep Easterly

My grandparents had many folk based weather predictors. Some of which I think are more valid than others. I remember as a child looking at some amazing colours in the evening sky and my grandad told that when clouds show a multiple of colour's in one glance, then it is a sure sign of a bad spell of weather on the way. I found this to be true. He also said that if you see snow lying on the the Reek in November, then it would be a harsh winter ahead. That is something I have always had my doubts about though.

His father, my great-grandfather, passed on many old indicators. One was that if you open the lid of the range and you see the smoke being sucked downwards, then bad weather was on the way. Living so close the the Mayo/Roscommon border he also noted that when the wind comes down from Mayo, then no good will be in it. and if the wind comes down from Roscommon, then that was a sure sign of thunder later.

People of his generation, who worked close to the land with nothing but the harsh sky above them, had no other method of predicting the weather except what they learned from the generations before then who grew up in the same area and made lifelong observations about the local climate, and more often than not, they still prove to be correct today, sometines more so than scientific based national forecasts.

Tom Cruises Left Nut

Just to be safe I have put a stuffed otter on my mantlepiece !!!

Bring on the cold !!! :D

John mac

I saw 3 otters in the river on 19th of Jan.

Pa ElGrande

Not local but

Groundhog Day in pictures: Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter

followed by

Washington DC prepares to shut down for massive snowfall dubbed 'snowpocalypse'

Joe Public

A common one I used to hear was if geese were flying south there's cold weather coming behind them.

redalicat

Keep hearing about the Donegal postman, Michael Gallagher, who came out with a book on this, "Traditional Weather Signs". I haven't been able to locate the book, but he seems to have a website here that mentions some weather lore.

Pangea

As i said before these signs are not witchcraft, they are all about common sense ,if you hear bird making a lot of noise or the berrires gone from the trees early then obviously they are expecting something along with many other tell tale signs , e.g.I heard a fox barking close to my house just before the cold snap, I never heard a fox before ,it was quite creepy, almost like a banshee.
Heres a foxs bark from youtube for anyone thats interested
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cPg7_nyoBc&feature=fvw

Common sense was used when there was no electricity instead of these charts we have nowadays. Its a pity how people who are so into the weather can so easily disregard someones observations on natures funny ways.
Another example is you will always see seagulls fly inland before a big storm comes , its nature being prepared for whats to come.

Joe Public

That fox shreik is really haunting, could you just imagine a fox and owenc both doing a duet? now that would something else:)