The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-03-18
To Foretell Weather

Weather-wise prognosticators seem to
be on the increase, In last weeks issue
we quoted from a Cincinnati observer
his method of foretelling the changes in
the weather, from watching the habits
OF animals; and there now comes from
the South weather prophet who adds a
long list of the signs which he has OBJ
served to precede changes in the
weather.
Few intelligent persons, says the
Southern PtdnteT,can have any sympathy
with the socalled prophets who oracu
larry announce phenomena, giving dates,
| occasionally making lucky hits, but as
often firing their random shots altogeth-
er wide of the mark That there is.
however, something in weather philos.
ply, intelligent persons will Ge quite
ready to concede, and they will be in
accord with the view of the writer when
be recommends the observation of natu-
raj phenomena, which has long been
practised: He says
1T one could read the signs, each day
foretells the next; today is the progen-
ltor of to morrow. When the atmos-
pheie is telescope, and distant objects
stand out unusually clear and distinct. a
storm is near. We are on the crest of
the wave, and the depression follows
quick. 1t so sometimes happens that
clouds are not indicative of storm as
their total absence. In this state of the
atmosphereathe stars are usually nu-
merous and bright at night, which is also
bad omen. 1t appears that the
transparency Of the air is prodigi-
ously increased when certain guam
tlty OF water is uniformly diffused
through it. Mountaineers predict a
change of weather, when, the air being
calm, the Alps covered with perpetual
snow seem ON a sudden to be near the
observer, and their outlines are marked
with great dlstinctness on the azure sky.
lhis same condition of the atmosphere
renders distant sounds more audible.
There is one redness of the east in the
morning that means storm another that
indicates wind. The first is broad. deep.
and angry; the clouds look like an i'm :
mense bed of burning Goals: the second
Is soft and more vapory. At the point
where the sun is going to rise, and a few
minutes in advance OF his coming, there
rises straight upward rosy column.
llk shaft of dyed vapor, blending with
clouds, and the base of which presently
comes to glow like the sun himself. The
day that follows is pretty sure to be
windy.
II is uncertain to what extent birds
and animals can foretell the weather.
When swallows are seen hawking very
high, it is a good indication, because
the insects upon which they feed ven
ture up there only in the most auspi-
cious weather.
People live in the country all their
lives without making one accurate OBJ
servation about nature. The good OBJ
server of nature holds his eve long and
firmly to the point, and finally gets the
facts, not only because he has patience
but because his eye is sharp and his in
ference swift. There are many assertions
the result of hasty and incomplete OBJ
servation, such as, for instaace, that the
~ay the Milky Way points at night in
dicates the direction Of the wind the
next day; also, that every new moon in
dlcates either dry or wet month.
There are many other stories about the
moon too numerous to mention. Again.
when farmer kills his hogs in the fall.
it the pork be very hard and solid he
predicts severe winter; if soft and
loose, the opposite overlooking the fact
that the kind Of food and the temnera-
ture Of the fall make the pork hard or
soft. Numerous other instances conld
be cited to prove that the would Be
shrewd farmer does not interpret nature
in the right way, and that his concIu-
sions, being hasty and incomplete. IRE
wrong; and until he studies nature un-