For describing the weather in realistic and at the same time picturesque terms, some of the dialect phrases would be hard to beat. Take for example these: It’s a donky day, Ben! Ey, rayder slattery. Varra slashy! Ay, parlish soft. Here’s a sharp mwornin’, John! Ey, as snell as a stepmother’s breath. A tell you ’tis a day wud blaw the horns aff the kye [cows]. It fare to be a wunnerful glosy morning, leastways I sweat good tidily. It fair teeam’d doon, it stowered, an’ it reek’d, an’ it drazzl’d, whahl ah was wet ti t’skin, an’ hedn’t a dhry threed aboot ma. T’weather wor seea pelsy, followed wi’ sitch a snithe, hask wind. A cold snarzling wind. When the air is so cold that it will not allow any one to stand idle: There’s a good steward about. On the Cumberland Fells there is always a bone in the air. When the day looks bright and pleasant, but there is a chill nip in the air, it is a sly day; when it is cold and foggy, it is hunch-weather, because it makes men and animals hunch up their shoulders; when it is very cold with a piercing wind it is peel-a-bone weather; and when it rains very hard it is: Raining pitchforks with the tines downwards. A raging, blustering wind goes wuthering across a bleak moor, whence the name of Mr. Heathcliff’s dwelling Wuthering Heights. When the sky shows streaks of windy-looking cloud, and the weather seems doubtful it: Looks skeowy; an unusually bright day is: Too glisky to last; when a fine rain is falling: It hadders and roäks. A kind of hoar-frost peculiar to Dartmoor is known as the ammil, a term which is apparently a figurative use of amel, i.e. enamel (cp. ‘Esmail, ammel or enammel’, Cotgr.), used to denote the thin coating of transparent ice which covers every twig, and leaf, and blade of grass. On a calm, hot day, when the air near the surface of the ground is seen to quiver in the sunlight: The summer-colt rides, or: The summer-goose flackers; the Northern Lights are the Merry Dancers; heavy masses of fleecy white cloud are Wool-packs, or they are the Shepherd’s Flock. The evening star becomes the Shepherd’s Lamp, whilst the moon, more prosaically, does duty as the Parish Lantern.
Weather Rhymes and Sayings
To the countryman who lives by tilling the soil, or by tending sheep and cattle, the prospect of fair days or foul is all-important; we therefore find in the dialects a mass of weather-lore, in part based on old superstition, in part on trustworthy observation. Sun, moon, and stars, clouds and wind, the habits of animals, and the various signs of the approach of winter, or the advent of spring, are all observed and studied, and then, in course of time, the results of this observation have become crystallized in popular sayings and homely rhymes.
When the sky has a cruddled appearance, that is, when it is covered with small fleecy clouds called Hen-scrattins (Sc. n.Cy. Midl.), it means that the weather will be: Neither long wet nor yet long dry. The same is said of the long streaky clouds called Filly-tails (Sc. n.Cy.), Mares’-tails (gen. dials.), and Goat’s-hair (Nhb.). When a thick band of cloud lies across the west, with smaller bands above and below, it is: Barbara and her barns [children], a sign of stormy weather (Yks.). The name is an allusion to St. Barbara, whose father was about to strike off her head, when a lightning flash laid him dead at her feet. Hence she was supposed to command the thunderstorm, and was invoked as a protectress. When dingy packs on Criffel lower, Then hoose yer kye an’ stuik yer duir, But if Criffel be fair an’ clear, For win’ or weet ye needn’t fear (Cum.). A small dark cloud such as Elijah’s servant beheld when he looked toward the sea from the top of Carmel, is called a Dyer’s-neäf [hand], and betokens rain as it did in Ahab’s time, for: A dyer’s neaf an’ a weather-gall Shepherds warn at rain’ll fall (Yks.). A Weather-gall (n.Cy.) is the stump of a rainbow left visible above the horizon. A Weather-breeder (n.Cy. n.Midl. e.An.) is a fine warm day out of season, regarded as the precursor of stormy weather. When streaks of light are seen radiating from the sun behind a cloud, the sun is said to be drawing wet, for the Sun-suckers (Chs. Shr.) are sucking up moisture from the earth, to form rain. Roger’s blast (e.An.) is a kind of miniature whirlwind, which suddenly on a calm day whirls up the dust on the road, or the hay in the field, high in the air, to herald the approaching rain.
Signs of Wet Weather
It is a sign of coming wet weather if the moon is on her back (Sc. Midl. e.An.), for she holds the water in her lap; if a halo is seen round her, variously termed a wheel (Brks. Hmp. Som.), a bur (n.Cy. n.Midl. e.An. s.Cy.), and a brough (Sc. Irel. n.Cy.), e.g. The bigger the wheel, the nearer the wet; If t’bur i’ t’muin be far away, Mek heaste an’ hoose yer cworn an’ hay; A far-aff broch a near-han’ shoor, A near-han’ broch a far-aff shoor; or if the evening star leads the moon, that is, if it is in front, or on the right-hand side of the moon. A Setterda’s moon, Cum it once in seven year, it cums too soon (Lin.), for: Saturday new, and Sunday full, It allus rines, and it allus ool (Glouc.). If curleys whaup when t’day is duin, We’ll hev a clash [downpour] an’ varra suin (Cum.). The guinea-fowl or come-back invokes rain (Nrf.); and the call of the green woodpecker is the warning signal: Wet! wet! wet! (Shr. Som.). It is a sign of rain when th’ craws plaays football, that is, when the rooks gather together in large bodies, and circle round each other; when the ducks do squacketty (Som.), or when they throw water from their bills over their heads (Yks.); when the swallows fly near the surface of the ground; when the crickets chirp more loudly than usual; when a cat scratches the table legs, or makes bread, or sneezes (Sc.), or in washing her face, draws her paw down over her forehead; if a cock flies up on to a gate, and there crows (Wal.); if a dog eats grass (Sc.); if the packmen [snails] are about (War.); If paddocks crowk in t’pow [pool] at neet, We may expect baith win’ an’ weet (Cum.); if a peacock cries frequently (Dev.); if you meet a shiny-back (War.), or common garden beetle; if you kill a rain-clock [beetle], or rain-bat (n.Cy. Wor.), an egg-clock [cockchafer] (Lan.), or God’s horse [the sun-beetle](Cum.). If it rains on Friday it will rain on the following Sunday (Cum.). The shooting of corns, or of an old sore, is a sign of wind and rain (Yks.). If a rake is carried in harvest-time with its teeth pointing upwards it is certain to rake down rain (Dev.). If the cat frisk about the house in an unusually lively manner, wind or stormy weather is approaching (Lan.). The shrew-mouse prognosticates in which quarter the wind will prevail during the winter by making the opening of its nest in the contrary direction (Nhp.). It is a very common saying that: When the wind is in the east, It’s neither good for man nor beast; but: The wind in the west Suits every one best (Lan.) A streak of thin white cloud, somewhat in the shape of a boat, is called Noah’s Ark (Sc. n.Cy. n.Midl. e.An.). If it lies north and south it denotes rain, but lying east and west it denotes fine weather (Cum.). Or again, it is held that if the Ark remains three days, the wind will pass into the quarter to which the Ark points. South for rain; north for cold; east for all that is ill; and west to everybody’s gain (Wm.).
Popular Meteorology
If a robin sings on a high branch of a tree it is a sign of fine weather, but if one sings near the ground the weather will be wet (Shr.). An old saying about the wood-seer (Nhp.), the little green insect found in the white froth deposited on plants, is that when its head is turned upwards it betokens fine weather, and when downward, the reverse.
In changeable weather the rain is said to come and go by planets (Der. Lei. e.An.), or if rain falls with great violence, but very locally, it is said to fall in planets (n.Cy.), phrases which must be remnants of old astrological beliefs.
The presence of sea-gulls inland is generally taken as an indication of stormy weather: Sea-mo, sea-mo, bide on t’sand, Theer nivver good weather when thoo’s on t’land (Cum.); but this is not always the case. A Devonshire rhyme runs: When the say-gulls cry by lan’, ’Tis time to take the zellup [seed-leap, i.e. seed-basket for sowing] in han’; When the say-gulls cry by say, ’Tis time to draw the zellup away. In Shetland there is an old rhyme concerning the movements of the rain-goose, or red-throated diver: If the rain göse flees ta da hill, Ye can geng ta da haf whin ye will; But whin shö gengs ta da sea, Ye maun draw up yir boats an’ flee. According to an old Cumberland saying: If’t cums on rain when t’teyde’s at flowe, You may yoke t’plew on any knowe [knoll]; Bit if it cums when t’teyde’s at ebb, Then lowse yer plew an’ gang to bed.