The Backstory to a Weather Book
In 2018 I set out to write a book about the weather. The plan was to stick true to a philosophy and approach that I…
Tag: traditional weather forecasting
The Naming Convention of Winds
Winds are labelled with the direction they have come from, not the direction they head towards, but why? A Westerly wind has come from the…
How Can I Tell If A Cloud Will Bring Rain?
Is it going to rain? What a popular question. The key to longer-term forecasts lies in studying changes in clouds and fronts over hours, but…
How to Tell If You Are Looking at a Storm Cloud
If we see clouds growing taller, it is a sign that showers and storms are more likely than days when the clouds are flat and…
Rainbow Natural Navigation Mini Quiz
I took this photo of a rainbow in Sussex, southern England, late in the day, a little over a week ago. Which way are we…
Dew: A Sign of a Clear Skies
There are many signs within dew, but the simplest one is that you are most likely to see it after clear and cloudless skies overnight.…
The Michael Ball Show on Radio 2
It was a joy and an honour to be a guest on the legendary Michael Ball Show on Radio 2 on Sunday. If you missed…
The Clouds Map the Ground
On first glance these clouds may appear random. But they are far from it. They are making a map of the ground for us. With…
The Wind Shift Before the Weather Change
Or… The Art of Staring at Blue Skies This video is a time lapse of a couple of hours of looking out over the western…
The Secret World of Weather
How to Read Signs in Every Cloud, Breeze, Hill, Street, Plant, Animal, and Dewdrop The weather changes as we walk around a tree or turn…
Which Way Are We Looking?
Two questions today. I took this picture yesterday. Which direction are we looking? And a tougher one: what sign is there in this picture that…
The Joy of Signs in Spring
by Tristan Gooley Time outdoors has become precious and there’s a joy in this. We’re all about to get better at appreciating the beauty and…
What are Supernumerary Rainbows?
Supernumerary rainbows are faint bow lines that appear just inside the main rainbow. Look at the rainbow above and you may just be able to…
How to Navigate with Rainbows
Many people believe that a thing must be either beautiful or practical. But nature brims with examples that manage both. Rainbows are pretty, but they…
Red Sky in the Morning, Shepherd’s Warning
Latest News: The Secret World of Weather book contains hundreds of weather signs. As the shepherds warn us, a red sky in the morning is…
Signs in the Sky – New Animation!
Here is the second in the short series of short animations. Hope you enjoy! (If you missed the Water one, you can find that on…
Sand Patterns, Shadows and Camel Balm
I recently got back from a brief work trip to the United Arab Emirates. Whilst there I visited Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman and Fujairah and spent…
22 Degree Halo and Contrail Shadow
My thanks to Alan Gibson, urbane forager and regular contributor to this blog, for another great image. In this picture we are looking at two…
How to Navigate Using the Upper Winds and Clouds
I have written in the past about the basics of using the weather to navigate. Here I’d like to offer a couple of tips to…
A Brief Introduction to Cloud Clues
Supercomputers churn mounds of data and give us a more accurate weather forecasts than our ancestors could manage. But there is something more satisfying about…
Weather Lore
Welcome to the page where I have collected a few weather lore sayings and laid out the meteorological truth, or otherwise, behind them. Breaking News:…