High tides on the coast of Maine are considered a sign of rain.
When the muskrat builds his nest higher than usual, it is a sign of a wet spring, as this means high water in the ponds and streams.
“A winter fog
Will kill a dog,”
which is as much as to say that a thaw, with its usual accompaniments of fog and rain, is invariably productive of much sickness.
Winter thunder is to old folks death, and to young folks plunder.
“Sound, travelling far and wide,
A stormy day will betide.”
Do business with men when the wind is northwest—that signifies that a clear sky and bracing air are most conducive to alertness and energy; yet Hamlet says: “I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
That was certainly a pretty conceit, no matter if it has been lost sight of, that the sun always dances upon Easter morning.
One of the oldest of weather rhymes runs in this wise:—