Forecast your picnic weather

Red sky at night, sheperds' delight
Red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning

Before the rise of computers, radar systems and satellites, there was no formal weather forecasting and people tried to predict the weather in other ways.

In the British Isles if you see a lovely red sky at night, the weather is likely to be good the following day, or so the saying goes. On the other hand, “red sky in the morning is a shepherd’s warning”. Of rain, that is.

This may not be such a random prediction because weather at our latitudes tends to come from the west and a red sky in the evening means that the sun is shining through clear, dry air coming towards us. A red sky at dawn, however, is likely to be reflected off rain clouds coming in from the west.

It’s difficult to obtain local, or last-minute picnic weather information but you can try and check what your picnic weather might be at the BBC or CNN. However, many of the principles of folklore forecasting are now recognized as being rooted in science, such as the red sky prediction above.

Fishermen and sailors are good at reading the weather from the sky and clouds. “Mares’ tails and mackerel scales make tall ships carry low sails” goes the saying. Mares’ tails are high cirrus clouds, which often appear like long streamers when high winds are racing ahead of a weather front. If sheets of small, puffy altocumulus clouds materialize too, dappled with darker grey like the scales of a mackerel, then, they claim, bad weather is on the way.

Some animals make good weather forecasters. As children we were taught that if the cows in the field were lying down, then it would rain soon.

Bees, I’ve read, have an impressive reputation for sensing changes in the weather. “When the bees crowd out of their hive, the weather makes it good to be alive. When bees crowd into the hives again, it’s a sure sign of storms and rain”.

Crickets seems to chirp more when it's warm – they certainly do in Spain but maybe that’s just because they get too hot!

Whether you forecast your picnic weather or not, with a little forethought, you can still have a perfect picnic. A shower or two won’t dampen your fun but a lack of umbrellas and protective clothing might!

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