This “veering with the sun,” as it is called, is the ordinary diurnal variation of the wind, which in this country is very obvious with the shallow gradients of an anticyclone. At sea-side places in summer very often “the wind is in by day and out by night,” which is the equivalent of the land and sea breezes of the tropics. Like two preceding prognostics, it is only in anticyclones that local currents of air, probably due to unequal heating of sea and land, can override the general circulation of the atmosphere in this country.
Sometimes in winter, on the southern side of the anticyclone, bitter east winds, with a black-looking sky, will prevail for several days together, when it may be truly said:
When the wind is in the east
’Tis neither good for man nor beast.
Sometimes also the sky in this region will be covered with a uniform stratus cloud, which is not of any great thickness, and when breaks occur, the sun is seen to be shining brightly above.
On the northeast side of the anticyclone in summer, light, cumulus clouds frequently form in the morning, gradually increase till after the maximum temperature has passed, and then decrease and disappear towards evening.
If woollen fleeces spread the heavenly way,
Be sure no rain disturbs the summer day.
When the cumulus clouds are smaller at sunset than they were at noon, expect fair weather.
Clouds small and round like a dapple gray with a north wind, fair weather for two or three days.