Weather Forecasting
This section is an excerpt from the book, Camping’s Top
Secrets by Cliff Jacobson. To see a full review for this book, check out Camping’s Top Secrets. It is full of
useful tent camping tips for spotting bad weather while camping:
“Every outdoors person should have a basic understanding of
weather phenomena and be able to make reasonably accurate short-term weather predictions. Some
campers take forecasting quite seriously; they arm themselves with min/max thermometers, barometers, cloud charts, and weather
tables. Whether or not this paraphernalia will improve your short-range forecasts is
debatable. After all, primitive man is right on target more than 80 percent of the time simply by
looking at the sky, sensing the wind, and “feeling” the weather. You can approximate this
enviable success rate by applying these time-proven principles:
1. “Red sky at
night, sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.” Translation: A red morning
sky indicates possible rain that day; a red evening sky suggests the next day will be clear. The
color difference relates to the reflective value of the low-lying cloud cover.
2. Check the grass,
tent, canoe bottom, or whatever for the presence of dew in late evening or early morning. A heavy
dew at either of these times usually suggests eight to twelve hours of good weather.
3. Watch the smoke
from your campfire. If it hangs low (a function of low pressure) to the ground, rain is on the
way. If it rises high into a nice vertical column (high pressure), count on good
weather.
4. Check out the
air bubbles in your coffee cup. They’ll ring the edges of the cup when a low pressure (rain)
system sets in.
5. You can
sometimes smell a coming storm, as the low pressure allows methane (swamp gas) to rise and drift with the current. In boggy areas the odor is quite pronounced.
6. “When the
peacock loudly bawls, there’ll be both rain and squalls.” Translation: Birds sing loudly just
before a storm.
7. Geese and
seagulls usually won’t fly just before a storm. Low-pressure air is thin and it’s hard for them
to get airborne.
8. The ears of many
animals are sensitive to low pressure. Wolves will howl before a storm. Dogs will become nervous and emit howls or howl-like sounds.
9. To determine the
distance of a lighting strike, count the seconds between the flash and the thunder boom. Divide
by five and you’ll have your answer in miles.
10. Noises all become louder and more vibrant just before a
rain, because the sound is reflected and magnified by the low clouds. The croaking of frogs,
yodel of loons, etc., will echo loudly if rain is imminent.
11. Be alert for
changes in wind direction. Storms are whirlpools of wind that rotate counterclockwise in the
Northern Hemisphere (remember high school science?). The adage “Wind from the south brings rain
in its mouth” is the keystone here, as the wind that precedes a storm usually blows from the south. Counterclockwise wind shifts therefore usually bring rain, while clockwise movements indicate fair
weather. You can keep these directional changes straight by remembering the
rhymes…
“Wind from the east brings weather that’s a
beast.” (Suggest a counterclockwise wind shift from the south to east, east to north, and so
on.)
“Wind from the west brings weather that’s best.” (Suggests a
clockwise wind shift from south to west, north to east, etc.)
12. Most everyone
knows that frogs emerge from the water just before a storm and croak their fool heads off. Frogs
breathe partly through their skin (which must be kept moist), so when the humidity rises just before a storm, they climb ashore and sing
happily.
13. If you’re a
canoeist, you know that about eight to twelve hours before a storm, mosquitoes and blackflies begin to swarm and bite more than
usual. Up to two hours before the storm they quit biting altogether.
14. Check out the
rainbow: A heavy red may mean more rain; vibrant rich blue suggests clear skies ahead.
15. Here’s an old
Down East proverb: “Filly tails make lofty ships wear low sails.” Translation: Thin, hairlike
clouds forecast rain within the day. These “filly tails” are really streaks of ice thrown skyward
by the rising air of a coming storm.
16. “A mackerel sky
[tiny scalelike clouds that resemble a mackerel’s back], just twenty-four hours dry.” Translation: Expect rain within the next
day!
17. Any fireflies
around? When rain approaches, these little insects light up the woods, according to this rhyme:
“When the little glow bug lights his lamp, the air around is surely damp.”
18. Listen for the
rustle of leaves as the wind precedes the storm.
19. If you can’t
see the sharp points on a half moon, rain may be on its way. Translation: Low clouds and haze
distort sharp images.
20. Bright,
twinkling stars usually indicate high altitude winds, which may be bringing in a storm.
21. There’s a good
chance that foul weather (rain or snow) will fall within three days of a new moon phase.
22. “The weather
out west had best be best, for tomorrow will bring it to you to test!” This means that in all
likelihood, the weather system to your west will be at your location tomorrow.
23. In summer a sun
dog, or halo around the sun, generally predicts the coming of rain. Sun dogs are caused by
sunlight streaming through the ice particles of high cirrostratus clouds. A halo around the moon
may also indicate rain.
24. “Evening fog
will not burn soon, but morning fog will burn before high noon.” Invariably, a fog-borne day will
become perfectly clear (an ideal day) by noon. Fog forms when water vapor reaches the dew point
and condenses on dust particles near the ground. When the day heats up, the fog evaporates and
turns to invisible water vapor.
25. “Short notice,
soon it will pass. Long notice, expect it to last.”
Watch the clouds. If they take several days to build, a warm front- and prolonged rain- is
usually in the offing. If the storm system builds suddenly, it will probably pass
quickly.
26. And of course
everyone knows: “Rain before seven, dry by eleven.”
*To get some unconventional camping tips, take a look at
outdoor camping tips.
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