Old-School Sayings & Folklore
This Famous rhyme warns sailors of incoming storms when the morning sky is this color.
What is Red? ("Red sky at morning...")
In 1952, Gene Kelly famously splashed through puddles while joyfully singing this title song.
What is Singin' in the Rain?
This massive 2005 Category 5 hurricane devastated New Orleans and became one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
What is Hurricane Katrina?
These low-hanging, flat, grey sheets of clouds often blanket the whole sky and bring light, steady rain or drizzle.
What are stratus clouds?
This tradition, often decorative roof ornament spins in the wind to show which direction the breeze is blowing.
What is a weather vane?
According to folklore, if this fuzzy caterpillar has a wide brown band, the upcoming winter will be mild.
What is the Woolly Bear caterpillar?
This 1939 classic movie famously features a Kansas tornado that transports Dorothy to the Land of Oz.
What is the Wizard of Oz?
This severe drought and ecological disaster ravaged the American prairies during the 1930'a Great Depression.
What is the Dust Bowl?
These bright white fluffy clouds look like floating piles of cotton and are famously known as "fair-weather" clouds.
What are cumulus clouds?
Invented by Gabriel Fahrenheit, this classic glass instrument utilizes expanding liquid to tell you how hot or cold it is.
What is a thermometer?
According to tradition, if this rodent sees his shadow on February 2ndm we are in for six more weeks of winter.
What is the groundhog? (Punxsutawney Phil)
Bing Crosby's iconic 1942 holiday recording holds the record as the best-selling physical single of all time.
What is White Christmas?
A lethal combination of industrial pollution and stagnant high pressure created the "Great Smog" of 1952 in this European capital.
What is London?
Thin, wispy, and feathery, these high-altitude clouds are made entirely of ice crystals and resemble a horse's tail.
What are cirrus clouds?
This is the term for scientists who specialize in studying the atmosphere forecasting, and reporting the daily weather.
What are meteorologists?
This traditional proverb claims that this windy, transitional month "comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb."
What is March?
This 1996 action blockbuster starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton followed a team of storm chasers chasing down massive F5 tornados.
What is Twister?
In March 1993, a massive storm system called the "Storm of the Century" dropped record-shattering amounts of this precipitation along the entire U.S. East Coast.
What is Snow?
When a standard fluffy cumulus cloud grows into a massive, dark, anvil-shaped tower, it becomes this type of thunderstorm producer.
What is a cumulonimbus cloud?
This instrument measures atmospheric pressure, and a sudden drop in its reading historically alerts you that a storm is brewing.
What is a barometer?
Old-timers say that if you count these sounds made by an insect in 15 seconds and add 37, you'll get the temperature to Fahrenheit.
What are cricket chirps?
Albert Hammond sang about the deceptive climate of America's west coast in his 1972 hit. "It Never Rains in" this state.
What is Southern California?
In 1816, a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia blocked out the sun, causing what historians called "The Year Without" this season.
What is a Summer?
This is the specific term for a cloud layer that is in direct contact with the ground, reducing visibility for drivers.
What is fog?
though often confused with a hurricane, this specific type of localized, rapidly rotating column of air is measured on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale.
What is a tornado?