Donal Hickey: Weather folklore to blow you away — or is it all just hot air?
Happening Or Will To Be Of Than Her Sleeps To Storm, With The Fire, Prediction If A Reaction Snow Folklore What's Be That There To Weather Cat What's Currently A Either Foretelling Back A Actually May A The Bad E Rather Weather, More Of Cold
The recent fine spell, so unusual in November, delighted many people and had us talking about good weather for a change.
It was caused by what is known as a ‘blocking high’ over the country — a stationary area of high pressure, or dry weather, which stops rain-bearing fronts from moving across it and can stay in place for weeks.
A presentation by Met Éireann’s Joanna Donnelly, part of an annual talks series organised by Killarney National Park, attracted keen interest as it came right in the middle of the unseasonal weather.
The veteran forecaster was in excellent form as she tried to explain some of the science of meteorology in simple terms. We may complain about our complicated, changeable and unpredictable weather, but we are spared the extremes suffered by other countries.
“We have the best weather in the world, I always tell the kids,’’ said Ms Donnelly who regularly gives talks in schools and other centres.
As our weather gets warmer year-on-year, however, every extra degree of heat creates more rain. Over two 30-year periods, annual rainfall rose by 7%. Experts such as former Maynooth University climate professor, John Sweeney, tell us to expect warmer summers and wetter winters.
Man-made rain, known as ‘cloud seeding’, stirs curiosity. It only happens in places which have a shortage of water, with experiments carried out in China, Russia, and the US.
Dry ice, or some similar substance, is put into the atmosphere from aircraft, resulting in rainfall for crop-growing, or some other necessity. We’re unlikely to need ‘cloud seeding’ in Ireland.
Science aside, some people still believe in folksy, time-honoured ways of weather forecasting, usually through signs from animals, clouds and nature in general. The National Schools Folklore Collection from the late 1930s records some which are observed to this day.
In November 1937, Patrick Quilty, of St Patrick’s Monastery, Bruff, County Limerick, wrote that hearing the caoin of the curlew, seeing swallows flying low, or a cat moving closer to the fire, meant rain on the way.
He described such signs as the essence of reliability, adding “otherwise they would have perished, or gone into the limbo of forgotten things".
Animals may have some kind of sixth sense in relation to the elements, but they react to what’s happening in the atmosphere rather than foretelling it. For example, if swallows are flying low it’s because the air is damp and their insect prey is close to the ground.
The Royal Meteorological Society says animals are often "an excellent guide to current weather conditions rather than predicting weather for any length of time".
Probably better to stick with the science.
Check out the Irish Examiner's WEATHER CENTRE for regularly updated short and long range forecasts wherever you are.