The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-16 00:00:00

In LOnd,ll, on Monday afternoon, Mr. ikrt H. Slott,
M.A , , Director of the MeteorologidelDffice, lectured
betore a large audience at the London Institution on
"Weather Knowledge,"

The lecturer commenced by saying that having on a
former occasion spoken chiefly of such knowledge of
the weather as may be gained from the use of the
telegraph, he would that evening devote most of his
time to considering the means available to every
one of making meteorological forecasts without
the use of instruments. Fishermen, gamekeepers,
shepherds, and the like can often, from local signs,
guess the weather for their own neighbourhood a
day or two ahead. Nay, for a particular district they
can do %sly, many oases better than the scientist
with all 'his apparatus. Savages are wonderful
weather-prophets, in like manner, within a certain
range. The lecturer cited a letter to himself from the
late Commodore Goodenough saying that when on
board the Pearl in the Pacific he fall in with some
fugitive slaves from Samoa, Ng o without instruments
of any kind had navigated a canoe 1,180 miles by sheer
dint of what the Commodore called such a knowledge
of weather signs as must have been tantamount to a
sixth sense. They all knew the proverb that pigs can
see the wind, and their carrying about straw against
bad weather had often been spoken of as a valuable
prognostic. Biras of passage, also, seeking iefuge
from colder regions in warmer ones, afforded use-
ful indications of the character of the coming season.
This was particularly so with such birds as wild
swans and other waterfowl, By coming south they
tell us of the sharp winters brewing for us
in Russia and Lapland. The great difficulty in
dealing with these prognostics and with popular
weather-wisdom in general arises from their being
so peculiarly local. One who knows well the signs in
one district will be quite at a loss in another. The non-
instrumental signs might be divided into those taken
from the clouds, from the landscape, and from optical
phenomena. Mr. Scott said he purposely omitted those
drawn from animals and plants as not being so readily
explicable on physical principles. The c:ouds were the
must valuable signs, for not only did their motion show
us which way the wind was blowing above our heads
while we were sheltered by hills or buildings, but their
changes also in form and size told us of operations going
on in the upper strata of the atmosphere of which we
could gain no knowledge in any other way. He was
not now speaking of such phenomena as the small
cloud "like a man hand,' which in the Mediterranean
portended violent thunderstorms, Mt Of More general
indicationi. It was well tai be warned that the regular
absorption of donde at,gertesia tines of the day was nd
sign of permanentcliaageaf weather. They all knew that
the moreings of some of the hotteat day s in summer were
often very foggy, and, conversely, !after a wet day we
had not uncommonly 'a clear night; succeeded by.a
return of clouds and "rein next mornii4. The lec-
turer entered at length into the rationale of these and
other phenomena of which he spoke. The "cirrus,"
however, or mare's tad clouds were most Important
signs of bad weather, althoughlbey were not infallible
ae._.....sese, its ea* vase, sees.— sae,- ase
seen. Mi. Scott had noticed in the Tyrol that in sum-
mer cirrus of ten preceded thunder storms, the fact being
that it showed the presence of wind aloft, but the
friction caused by the mountains prevented the current,
which broke up the clouds into cirrus, from
the force of a gale below' whilst eevertheless4ths
power enough to cause collisions in the 'strata above
and to produce electrical discharges. The filmy net-
work gradually becomes denser and denser, turning
into what is called the " cirro-stratus " cloud—
s form with which we aometimes see halos
round the sun and =eon invested—and finally
Into the " nimbus " or rain cloud. We all knew
that small fragments of cloud scudding below wide-
spread cloud-sheets or heavy woolpacks are unfailing
signs of storm, while the woolpack cloud itself was a
sure indication of great cold in the region above it.
This was most characteristically shown in the showery,
sleety weather of March, with north west winds. He
might here remark on a very peculiar appearance of
cumulus' with its rugged surface below instead of
above. This is known as the " pocky " cloud, and is
recognized in the Orkneys as the rare precursor a a
heavy gale, a relation easily intelligible on the idea
that the rounded form of the woolpack is due to the
introduction of a mass of condensed vapour into a
very cold atmosphere, and that in the case of the
pocky cloud there is a moist layer above seeking to
force an entrance into a much colder stratum below.
Once this entrance gained, sudden condensation fol-
lows, and that disturbance gives rise to a gale. The
weather signs taken from the landscape were next
enumerated and discussed, such as its being hazy or
clear, and the appearance of a cap of cloud on a hill
top, the value of which latter, prognostic was proved, to
vary with circumstances. A cap on a hill was not a
sure sign of rain, but the true rule is that'caps on low
hills are a bad sign, while caps on higher mountains are
not so. The observations of Professor Piazzi Smyth
on Teneriffe, and of others on Chimborazo, &c.,' were
cited in proof of this rectification of the old saw.
Optical signs of the weather, to which the lecturer now
passed mostly concerned the condition or amount of
aqueous vapour in the air, The colour of the sky, one
of the most trustworthy prognostics% was regulated
entirely by the state of condensation of the suspended
watery vapour. The successive layers of air charged
with vapour stop the different rayseof light; firstly the
blue, then the yellow, and lastly the red. Whe;ll,'
the sun is near the horizon the rays have to traverse
a great thickness of vapour, and so the last rays
at sunset and the first at sunrise are red.- The
truth of the old rhyme, "Evening red and morning
gray, &a; may be thus explained. The disappear-
ance of clouds at sunset is a sign of fine weather, for it
is due to the sinking of the clouds iato the warmer
strata near the surface of the earth, where they are
evaporated. These clouds in disappearing leave
bahind them a large amount of vapour in the air, and
the sun's rays shine red through thte medium. In the
morning the air is comparatively dry after the' cold of
the nigh/4 and the blue and yellow rays are not
stopped in their transit, so that the cloud looks gray
from a diffused light. Conversely, a gray sky in the
evening is caused by the presence of such a mass of
clouds as to stop the sun's direct rays, and to allow
nothing but diffused light to pass; While in the MOrn-
ing the red and lowering tints of the clouds show
that the air is full of watery vapour, close to its
point of condensation. This explanation was warmly
cheered.

attaining
'-,ad I

The value of the rainbow, coronas, and halos round
sun and moon, the aurora, &c., was next spoken of and
accounted for, and the subject of local weather signs
having been fully treated, the lecturer concluded with
some interesting remarks on the importance of such
homely weather wisdom to the ohiervers employed by
those engaged in forecasting the weather by means of
telegraphic reports.