Red Sky at Night, Shepherd's Delight
Weather warnings, cumulus clouds and old adages
The weather has been all over the place in Kent recently. It’s one extreme or the other: blazing hot sunshine or pouring rain. I’m sure my mum, who lives in Scotland, will be reading this and not feeling sorry for me, since it sounds like she’s had pretty much non-stop rain all summer. And while I’d love a little more “normal” weather, and I am fearful about what the climate crisis means for the future of the weather here down south, I’m also becoming more and more fascinated by the weather and the things we can use to predict it.
Last week’s email was all about intuition, and just like my kingfisher psychic powers I think I may have rain-predicting magical powers too, as I seem to be especially good at going for a walk during a break in the rain. Actually, that’s a lie, Noushi and I have got a little bit damp twice this week, much to her disgust*, but both times the rain has also become biblical as soon as we’ve got back inside the house. Which got me thinking… are there signs I can use (other than my extremely inaccurate weather app, badly named Accuweather), in order to ensure Princess Noushi stays dry?
In Tristan Gooley’s book, The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs, he talks a lot about how we can use cumulus clouds to predict the weather. These are those individual, fluffy clouds that look like they belong in Super Mario, you know the ones!
“Look at the top and bottom of these heaped cumulus clouds,” says Tristan. “If the bottom of the cloud is level and the top is formed of well-defined cauliflower-like florets, then it is a friendly cloud”. These friendly clouds are “unlikely to contain any rain,” and if they do, it’ll just be a small, insignificant shower. However, according to Gooley, “If one of these ambitious clouds has a wispy top and a ruffled or bulging bottom, then it is a different beast altogether. The wispy top signifies that the water at the highest levels has turned to ice and this is a sign that much more serious and heavy storms are in store”.
If, like me, you are spending a lot of time staring out of your window, trying to figure out when to go for a walk without getting absolutely soaked, keep this tip from The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs in mind:
“Bigger shower clouds usually have bigger gaps [...] the overall size determines both the length of the shower and the length of reprieve between each shower.”
Basically, if there are a lot of smaller rain clouds in the sky, they’ll cause a lot of “on-off showers” and you’ll be caught out no matter what, whereas with the larger type of rain cloud, there’s likely to be a break in the rain and, much to Noushi’s delight, it might be possible to avoid getting wet.
The skies haven’t always been grey around here lately though, and this stormy weather has made for some beautiful and dramatic skies, which made me wonder if there’s any truth in the old adage:
“Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”
According to the Met Office, “the saying is most reliable when weather systems predominantly come from the west, as they do in the UK” because “a red sky at sunset means high pressure is moving in from the west,” so “the next day will usually be dry and pleasant”. In the morning, however, red skies appear “due to the high-pressure weather system having already moved east,” which means “the good weather has passed, most likely making way for a wet and windy low-pressure system”.
All is not lost though, if you do find yourself in a downpour, remember that being out in the rain is actually good for you (not that Noushi cares for this fact).
While we’re on the subject of clouds… here are some nacreous clouds I saw earlier this year. Apparently they are associated with very cold and dry weather.
*One of my favourite Noushi quirks is the way she she starts trying to dry her face with her paw as soon as she gets a bit wet, it’s well cute (only slightly less cute when she does it to me to get the dog food off her face after breakfast). She’s also been known to wipe her face on strangers on the street, like this…
P.S. Here’s my Rainy Days Spotify playlist, in case you’d like some tunes to accompany the stormy weather.
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The face wipe <3
This was fascinating, and I have Tristan's book on my shelf - will have to dip in!