The cloud called goat’s hair or the gray mare’s tails forebodes wind.
If clouds look as if scratched by a hen
Get ready to reef your topsails then.
Mackerel sky and mare’s tails,
Make lofty ships carry low sails.
The shift of the wind is different in the right-hand portion of the depression to what it is in the left-hand portion. In the former, on its first approach, the wind backs to south and falls very light to an almost ominous calm. The first puffs or “paws” of wind give rise to a noise in tree tops without much wind, and little eddies of dust, or to a whistling of the wind indoors, which are all well-known signs of rain. Then, as the depression passes along, the wind gradually veers to southwest and west, with increasing strength. Hence,
When the wind veers against the sun,
Trust it not, for back ’twill run.
When the wind is in the south
It is in the rain’s mouth.