CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Weather folklore has been passed down for generations and many of these traditions are often accepted as fact today.
All of them are based on some truth but they aren’t all that reliable. Previously, in part one of Weather IQ Weather folklore: Fact or fiction, we learned if crickets can tell us the temperature and if rings around the sun or moon or upside down leaves meant rain is coming.
Here are three more popular weather lore that may be more fiction than fact.
“No weather’s ill if the wind be still”
Fiction: A still wind usually means we are near the center of a high pressure system, where the weather is at its best. Meaning this lore is right only in this scenario.
However, on a calm summer day, pop-up thunderstorms can form in low wind environments which can pick up the winds and turn the weather ill rapidly.
RELATED: Weather IQ: What causes wind?
“Red skies at night, sailor's delight. Red skies in morning, sailors take warning.”
Fiction: This is one of the oldest weather wise tales on record, dating back to biblical times.
Storms typically travel from west to east and these high moisture clouds will accentuate the colors of a sunrise or sunset. Red skies at night mean that the clouds are likely to the east as the sun sets in the west, or that a storm system has passed.
The old adage says the sun rising in the east, or a red sky at dawn, means sailors need to be warned because a storm system is approaching from the west.
This is true sometimes, but most most tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic move east to west, meaning a delightful red sky at night can be the calm before an approaching hurricane.
RELATED: Weather IQ: How hurricanes form
When your joints start to ache, rainy weather is at stake
Fact: For some of us, at least. Precipitation is likely around a low pressure system. Here's how you can sometimes "feel" an approaching storm.
Lower pressure means less force on the body and joints. This can allow tendons, muscles, fluids and tissue around joints to expand, which can more pressure and strain on your joints.
Not everyone will feel this though. People with arthritis or those who experience chronic join pain are most susceptible. Also people with a healing bone fracture can be sensitive to the changes in pressure.
The biggest downfall with this myth is that some people could have natural pain and swelling that has nothing to do with pressure changes.
Contact Chris Mulcahy at cmulcahy@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok.
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