As I was searching for weather lore the other day I stumbled across one I’d not heard for a long time:
Rain before seven, shine before eleven.
It struck me at first that this was no more than a fancy way of saying our weather is so changeable that whatever it’s doing now, it won’t be doing the same thing in four hours time*. And besides in my experience it’s more likely to be ’shine before seven, rain before eleven’ as I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been woken up by bright sunshine, and lain for a few happy minutes in bed planning all the exciting non-rain-related things I can do with the day (normally laundry, such is the variety of my life, but never mind. We make our own entertainment up here in the country) only for it to have commenced pissing down again by the time I’ve had my shower.
But anyway – and there is a point here – yesterday, just before seven as it happens, I woke up to the sound of it pissing down already. Hmm, I thought. The morning wore on and the rain continued and by 10:45 the cars out front were sending up sheets of water as they passed. Great skeins of rain were sweeping along the valley, obscuring my view of the hills. So much for traditional wisdom, I thought. but then, right on cue, just before eleven, the sun came out.
It was still raining, mind, but it was an improvement.
*This reminds me – and yes, I am rambling, thank you for pointing that out – of the time when I was asked by a South African at a bus stop ‘how long does the rain usually goes on for here?’ This floored me – I mean, do some countries have rain that goes on for a usual amount of time? So in the end, after some thought I replied ‘oh, anything between twenty minutes and three days’ which, coincidentally, would also have done as the answer to the question ‘when is the bus likely to show up?’**
** except in the country, of course
May 19, 2009 at 11:21 pm |
When I was in Singapore there was a thunderstorm every day at 4. The locals would fold their newspapers and go in doors. We’d be by the pool saying “surely it is not going to …. argh!”
May 20, 2009 at 5:35 am |
@Moobs – same in the Alps in summer – the passion plays in Oberammergau almost rely on the being a thunderstorm between crucifixion and resurrection. Mind you in Spring, you could have 30°C sunshine, hailstorms, rain, snow and high winds at different times through the day – made getting dressed a nightmare
May 20, 2009 at 7:36 am |
You know, I could go for that kind of predictability sometimes.