Using the clouds to predict rain.

Years ago when I was in my twenty’s I use to take groups of fathers & sons on remote camping trips into northern Ontario.

One winter in preparation for future trips I went to the Michigan State Library and studied some of the old books in their collection.  

One book I found was written back in the 1940’s. This was of course before modern day weather forecasting as we know it. Back in the day people were more dependent on being able to read signs that were in the clouds.

In this book the author described one of the things he looks for to predict rain. He went on to tell if you see the sky full of “mairs tails” make a mental note of the time and 12 hours from then if the sky is filled with “mackerel lines” then you will know it’s going to rain 12 hours later. At the time I thought well that’s interesting.

That summer I had a group of campers and we were in our canoes fishing early in the morning around 6:00. I realized that the sky was literally filled with “mairs tails”. I remembered what I had read and I told my friend, that was helping me, what I had learned so we were on the lookout for “mackerel lines” at 6:00 pm.

Sure enough that evening the sky was full on these “mackerel lines”. I told my friend to just keep it to himself about what we had discussed.

That evening as everyone was crawling into their sleeping bags I announced that everyone would want to bring all their gear into their tents because it was going to start raining at 6:00 in the morning. Some laughed, most just ignored me.

Sure enough within a few minutes of 6:00 am the next morning the sky opened up and the campers were scrambling! This was a memorable moment. 😁

The younger campers were asking their fathers “how did he know that”. I laid in my tent with a huge smile on my face thinking “Wow they are going to hang on my every word now. In fact I may become a legend in the north woods”... Not!

I have used this several times to accurately predict rain over the years. The sky has to be full of them though, at the appropriate times.

Interesting.
I've always thought of mackerel skies as being a sign of a change in the weather, either from settled fine to rain or vice versa. We don't get the mares tails so often here -  that's a sign of wind at higher altitude I believe.

Where my mother's from (the border between Sweden and Finland), they say that mare's tails are a sign that the wind will pick up in the next 12 hours... I guess a lot of these weather signs depend on where you are.

Eino Kenttä wrote:Where my mother's from (the border between Sweden and Finland), they say that mare's tails are a sign that the wind will pick up in the next 12 hours... I guess a lot of these weather signs depend on where you are.

Yes they can depend on where you are, especially if you are in the mountains. I have seen the skies filled with mare's tails many times, when the mackerel line did not appear.  Of course they both need to happen at the right timing to make an accurate prediction. When the timing is right I have predicted within a few minutes several times. Thank you for sharing.

I've been reading The Secret World of Weather by Tristan Gooley.

It talks about exactly the sort of phenomenon Craig describes, but then adds the science behind the clouds you're seeing. We used to be taught the names of the clouds in Elementary School, but I don't recall any context, so to me it just seemed like linking pictures and words, only in real life, the pictures kept changing shape!

Tristan explains things like how clouds have "families" and the Cirrus Family is very high up (the pictures Craig posted) and that they are so high up, they are always ice crystals.

He has a section starting on pg 28 labeled: The Seven Golden Patterns. These are worth learning, but they are relative, and location is everything.  The author is based in the British Isles, but he's travelled extensively. Some of his patterns allow him to predict weather in very different ecosystems than Britain, but he's been doing this sort of thing for a long time.

I am trying to pay more attention to the clouds, and many of the general principles do relate to my ecosystem, but in my case, our weather gets jumbled up due to winds bouncing off mountain ranges and travelling over a mix of mountains, low lands, islands and oceans. My back field alone is its own ecosystem due to being a 200ft wide gap in a very tall coniferous forest. There is a section of the field we refer to as "the lower field" and I've known for years that it's a "cold trap" and will get and keep frost far longer than any other spot on our property. I will admit I seem to have a better sense of what temperature is *really* going to do, more than, "will it rain or not"!

In summary, this is a great book to read, contains lots of very useful info about weather, but it takes some hard work and practice to achieve mastery!

Craig - Love the idea of you being a Living Legend - you get my vote Excellent photographs.