As I reached for the central heating thermostat to turn it back up 21°C, that old saying came screaming back at me…
“Cast not a clout till May be out”
It was only a few weeks ago that I was splashing on the sun tan lotion dressed in my shorts and t-shirt. I remember sitting in the shade of my back garden, slowly cooking, as I sat looking up in awe at the blue sky. In my head were 2 thoughts. Firstly, I can’t ever imagine this wonderful weather ever ending and secondly, this is not going to last so make the most of it because this is probably our summer.
It almost got to the point where I stopped looking at the weather forecast. Every morning I would draw back my curtains fully expecting another perfect day. I had been lulled into a false sense of weather security. I had put my heavy winter jackets into the back of the wardrobe. In fact, if I had been in possession of a ‘clout’ I would have cast it sometime towards the end of April. How wrong I was.
Sunrise over Mumbles.
Like so many ‘old wives’ weather tales there is a lot of wisdom in that old saying. A ‘clout’ is thought to mean a piece of cloth or leather. It was normally worn by farm workers during the long winter months as they tended the animals and toiled in the fields.
Now these past 6 weeks have been a welcome distraction from the dark winter that preceded it. We all thought it unusual and somewhat strange but in truth even before ‘global warming’ there would be occasional warm spring months that could quite easily turn cold and wet in no time at all.
Whilst the saying is quite specific about casting a clout I suppose it would have been quite easy to put your clout back on if the weather turned a bit nasty. No, what I think it probably means is that we should remember that our weather is unpredictable so don’t rush to do things out of season even if the weather is unseasonably good.
There’s another ‘old wives’ weather saying I’ve been thinking about lately because of the wonderful sunsets we’ve been experiencing.
‘Red sky at night shepherds delight, red sky in the morning shepherds warning’
Like many men of my age I quite often find myself lying awake in the middle of the night trying to fall asleep. Having tossed and turned and counted sheep and gone through all of my breathing exercises I usually give in and put the radio on. One of my favourite stations is the BBC World Service. It was during our spring heatwave that I found myself listening to a programme called Crowd Science. The question had been raised by a listener in the Yukon Canada,
Is red sky at night really sailor’s delight?
The first thing they said was the saying was not new. It could be traced back at least 2000 years. In fact something similar is in the Bible. In Matthew Chapter 16, Jesus says
When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering.
It soon became clear from the programme that the saying I had grown up with was still used all around the world. Sometimes shepherds were replaced sailors, but the gist of the saying was the same, a red sky at night meant the next day would have fine weather.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6ssl
As the programme was on the World Service listeners contribute to Crowd Science from just about every part of the globe. One lady from Venezuela shared a similar weather saying, but it was the other way around
Red clouds at sunset pouring rain the following day
Who was right?
Well it appears that although the sayings are diametrically opposed they could both be right.
Red sunrises and sunsets are due to the low angle of the sun at the start and end of the day. That means the sun’s rays have to pass through more of our atmosphere than it does later in the day. That atmosphere is full of particles, from water vapour and gases to pollution and volcanic ash. As the sunlight passes through these particles the light gets scattered with the reds and orange colours in particular shining through.
Sun going down Three Clifts Bay
So why would that give us any indication of the weather to come?
The scientist explained that for the best red skies you need clear skies. Clear skies usually come with High pressure. She then went on to explain that due to the rotation of the earth our weather in Britain usually comes from the West. Red skies at night are in the west and that usually means there is high pressure and settled weather on its way.
If you have red skies in the morning it means the high pressure is now in the east. It could well have passed over us already meaning a low pressure system will soon follow bringing changeable weather. Of course if we are stuck in a period of High pressure for some time as we have done recently you could well have red skies in the morning and the evening.
The meteorologist went on to say that looking back at the weather records more often than not the saying holds true.
What about the reverse saying in Venezuela?
Whilst it is true that for us here in Britain and in large parts north and south of the equator the weather usually travels West to East, around the equator in the tropics the weather actually travels in the opposite direction. That would mean in Venezuela you would expect a red sky in the morning to be due to High Pressure coming from the east and good weather continuing in its wake making that saying true as well.
Maybe those old wives knew a lot more than we give them credit. Now where can I put my hands on a ‘clout’.