Weather Lore
Weather lore is the one category on this site where we regularly get to say something unusual for a folklore reference: some of it is actually true. Before satellite forecasts, people watched the sky, animals, and plants closely for real predictive signals, and a surprising number of the rhymes that resulted hold up against real meteorology.
The ones that genuinely work
"Red sky at night, sailor's delight" is meteorologically sound in the mid-latitudes, because weather systems generally move west to east and a red sunset means dust and moisture are being lit by clear sky to the west — the direction tomorrow's weather is coming from. A ring around the moon really does often precede a weather front, caused by light refracting through high cirrus ice crystals that frequently arrive ahead of a system. These aren't coincidences dressed up as folklore — they're folklore that happened to correctly encode real atmospheric physics, sometimes for reasons the original observers couldn't have explained.
The ones that don't
Other weather beliefs in this category are much weaker once tested — cows lying down before rain has a long folk history but doesn't hold up well against real observation, and the woolly bear caterpillar's stripe-width predicting winter severity has an actual, if inconclusive, mid-20th-century research history behind it (Dr. Howard Curran's surveys), which makes it a genuinely interesting case of folklore getting formally studied rather than dismissed outright.
We test the claim, not just repeat it
Every weather-lore page states plainly whether the belief holds up against real meteorological or biological evidence, rather than presenting every folk rhyme as equally reliable — or equally silly.
Animal-behavior forecasting, taken seriously and checked
A good share of this category is animal-behavior-based weather prediction — swallows flying low ahead of rain (a real mechanism: insects fly lower as air pressure drops), thick onion skins supposedly forecasting a hard winter, and the first cuckoo call of spring, which The Times of London genuinely used to publish reader letters about every year. Each gets checked against what real biology and climatology can actually support, rather than assumed correct because it's traditional.
Rare sky events get their own careful treatment
Eclipses, comets, and halos around the sun or moon carry some of the oldest recorded omens on the site — Halley's Comet's 1066 appearance is stitched directly into the Bayeux Tapestry, a genuinely dateable historical anchor for how seriously past societies took a rare celestial event.
Omens in Weather Lore (17 of 17 published so far)
- Red Sky at Night
- A Ring Around the Moon
- Groundhog Day
- The Woolly Bear Caterpillar's Stripes
- Aching Joints Before Rain
- St Swithin's Day
- Sailors' Weather Sayings
- Seeing a Rainbow
- A Double Rainbow
- Seeing the New Moon Through Glass
- Eclipse Superstitions
- Comets as Omens
- The First Cuckoo of Spring
- A Heavy Acorn Year
- Reading a Persimmon Seed
- A Halo Around the Sun
- A Mackerel Sky
Frequently Asked Questions
Is any weather folklore actually scientifically accurate?+
Yes — "red sky at night" and the ring-around-the-moon halo both correspond to real, explainable atmospheric conditions that do tend to precede specific weather, which is why meteorologists sometimes cite them as genuinely useful rules of thumb.
Has any weather folklore actually been studied formally?+
The woolly bear caterpillar's stripe pattern was the subject of real mid-20th-century research (Dr. Howard Curran's surveys at the American Museum of Natural History) — the results were inconclusive, but it's a genuine case of folklore getting tested rather than just repeated.
Why does aching joints before rain get mixed research results?+
Barometric-pressure changes are a plausible mechanism, but formal studies on whether joint pain reliably predicts weather have produced genuinely mixed results, which is exactly why we present it as inconclusive rather than confirmed either way.
Does this category cover rare sky events like comets and eclipses?+
Yes — comets, eclipses, and halos around the sun or moon each get their own page, with real historical attestations (Halley's Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry, for instance) given as much weight as the everyday weather rhymes.
Are animal-behavior weather signs reliable?+
Some genuinely are — insects flying lower ahead of a pressure drop is a real, explainable mechanism — while others, like cows lying down before rain, are weaker than their popularity suggests.