Salmon sky?

[Cruiser2B]

"Mare's tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships take in their sails."
"Red sky at night, sailor's delight."

OK weather buffs, the aforementioned weather lore, which I have generally found to be accurate, are opposite - one a portent of bad weather; the other, good weather. Walking along the dock last evening, I was treated to a gorgeous red mackerel sky - so what does that mean?

 

[Croak]

Not long wet and not long dry.

 

[mainsail1]

It means you can go sailing!

 

[Cruiser2B]

Apparently it meant cloudy in the morning with a little light rain, clearing through the afternoon, then windy.

 

[Rustyknight]

There's a book titled "Weatherwise", by Paul John Goldsack, which looks into loads of old weather lore, sayings, and rhymes, and gives them a reliability check. P'raps something for the Christmas stocking.......

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weatherwise-Practical-Weather-Sailors-Outdoor/dp/071538788X

 

[franksingleton]

The Mackerel sky that you saw was what the professionals would call “alto-cumulus.” Medium, height clouds, globular covering a large area of the sky. It usually occurs in settled weather.

There is an old rhyme –
“Mackerel sky and mare’s tails make tall ships carry small sail.”

I think this is when the clouds are higher up, in a cloud atlas, cirro-cumulus. If there are streaks falling from these, ie mare’s tails, it means that drops falling from these clouds are not evaporating. For that to happen it means that the air at those levels has a high humidity. That implies that the air is being made to rise – probably ahead of a warm front. When contrails form and persist it is for the same reason. Persistent contrails may be seen before you see the typical spread of cirrus ahead of a warm front.

Long-winded, I know, but little in meteorology can be explained in a few words.

 

[franksingleton]

Some more philosophical comments on the wider aspect of weather lore.

There is often some truth to be found. After all, weather lore is the result of centuries of observation. Having said that, any forecast depends on data input and the limited amount of data in such observations limits their use.

The example that I usually give is that of warm front cirrus. http://weather.mailasail.com/w/uploads/Franks-Weather/warm-front-cirrus.jpg or a halo like this
http://weather.mailasail.com/w/uploads/Franks-Weather/warm-front-halo.jpg.

These are two of the most useful predictors when watching the sky in they are pretty sure signs that

• The wind will back and increase,
• It will rain,
• The wind will veer at some stage
• The rain cease or turn to drizzle

After a while

• There will be some heavier rain
• The wind will veer
• Cloud will break
• Showers will develop.

All good stuff, as Donald Rumsfeld might have said, those are the known knowns. But what about the known unknowms?

• How far will the wind back?
• How strong will the wind become?
• When will it start to rain, for how long and how heavy?
• When will the wind veer?
• How long before the next veer of wind?
• How long will it stay showery?
• Or will a high form to give a spell of settled weather?
• Or will another warm front come within the next 24 hours?

Watch the sky, watch your barometer, they will tell you something; just be aware of how little they really do tell you There is no such animal as a precise or accurate forecast and anyone who makes such claims understands neither meteorology nor the realities of weather prediction. Nevertheless, weather forecasts produced using the best science available and making use of the maximum amount of the best data will give the best results possible. They will not be the best possible results.