Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-08-26
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OLD WEATHER PROVERBS

OLD WEATHER PROVERBS
They Are Really Prophetic and Should
Be Known to All.
It Is the fashion nowadays to turn
to the scientist for explanations OF
everything, more particularly Of the
weather phenomena which comes
daily under our notice. And the
scientist, on his side, Is always quite
ready to furnish these explanations.
But scientific explanations are hard to
remember and not of much practical
use to any except those learned In
science. What most people need are
not explanations of the facts, but the
facts themselves, and what they por-
tend. The former they can get by
observation. The latter are nowhere
so clearly and conclusively given as In
the old weather proverbs, now fall
ing into undeserved disrepute.
Prof. j. w. Humphries, Of the Uni
ted States weather bureau, in an ar
ticle entitled Some Universal Wealth
er Proverbs" printed in the year
book of the department of agricul-
ture, has done a good deal to restore
them to their rightful place.
Here are few Of the Oldest and
most famous. with Prof. Humphrle's
scientific explanation Of their truth:
Frost year, fruit year; year OF
snow. fruit will grow; year Of snow
a year of plenty, and a late spring
never deceives," all three Of which
mean the same thing, are very easily
exp ,ined. II the winter Is normal
one, with plenty Of frost and snow,
and spring comes at the right time,
it is not possible for the fruit trees
to blossom prematurely and be later
killed by hard frost or destroyed by
alternate thawing and freezing. Con-
sequently, all the proverb means, and
its meaning is G lite obvious, Is that
normal seasons mean normal fruit
crops. t.
one that interests everybody:
"a red sun has water in his eyes"
A red sunset indicates the presence
Of rain elements. If the sky near the
western horizon is yellow, greenish or
any Of these is less vapor condensa-
ton in the atmosphere than In the
case of red, although the red does not
indicate quite enough water vapor to
cause rain. ......
Here are the certain signs Of rain
in the evening sun:
eff the sun set in gray,
The next will be rainy day.
If the sun goes pale to bed,
Twill rain tomorrow, 1t is said"
The explanation of this phenomenon
Is simple. The space between our
earth and the sun is filled with par
ticles of dust. When the water drop
lets in the atmosphere are so numer-
GUS as to saturate these particles the
seems to be overloaded with uni
form gray, for the sun is obscured.
Rainfall is certain to follow this
phenomenon.
But there are other and equally de-
pendable signs of rain, such as the
halos and coronas that sometimes
surround the sun and the moon. One
of the proverbs in this case is:
"The nearer the ring, the bigger the
wet"
These halos and coronas are caus-
ed by storm clouds. II they seem
small 1t means that the clouds are
the result of storm far distant. If,
on the other hand, they seem nearer,
and therefore bigger, 1t indicates that
the clouds are low down and that the
storm Is not far off.
There is one set of proverbs, how
ever, which Prof. Humphreys at
tacks, declaring there Is no basis oi
truth in them. They are the pro-
verbs relative to the influence of the
moon on the weather. He says there
is absolutely no connection between
that body and our weather phenom
ena beyond a small tidal effect on the
Atmosphere, which is recorded by the
barometer.
He grants, however, that the ap-
pearance of the moon may be taken
as an indication of weather conditions
"Clear moon, frost soon;" Moon
light night has the harvest FROST" and
other proverbs of this class have
scientific foundation, for on clear
nights the earth gives out most OF
it's heat and, consequently, owing tc
the fall in the temperature, frost oi
dew is more probable than on Other
nights.
There Is yet another proverb con.
nected with the moon: SHARP horn:
do threaten windy weather"
When the horns of the moon are
clearly discernible by the naked eye
1t means that there is nothing in the
atmosphere to obscure them. An at
mosphere as clear as this generally
indicates that it has been swept by
the winds in the upper ether, and
these winds will probably reach the
earth before long.
There are other proverbs toe
numerous to mention, which are equal
lywell founded and reliable. They
are generally the result of close OBJ
servation on the part of those mos
interested in watching the signs ant
portens Of the heavens, and in very
few cases, can science disprove them
Even in these cases the point is
matter of dispute not only betweeI
scientists and old weather prophet
but between scientist and scientist al