Everyone is obsessed about the weather and it’s now emerged that there’s a way of knowing the upcoming conditions simply by inspecting the sky.
Sky News have just run a feature with a leading meteorologist who has given some expert insights into how weather forecasts are generated along with a simple way of telling what’s on the horizon just by lifting your head in the air.
Kathryn Chalk, the operational meteorologist at the Met Office in the United Kingdom, has revealed that you can “sometimes tell upcoming weather by looking at the sky”, while she has also exploded some myths that have been around for centuries.
How to Predict Weather From Looking at the Sky
Chalk explained to Sky News: “Certain cloud types can provide useful clues. For example, high clouds often signal a change in the weather, while developing cumulus clouds can indicate the potential for showers later in the day.
“However, I would still want to check observations, radar and forecast charts before making a confident prediction.”
Therefore, if you see high clouds in the sky, you might be able to impress a few people by exclaiming that a change in the weather is likely. It might also be worth noting what cumulus clouds look like in order to know when the next rainfall will happen.
Chalk has also admitted that the phrase “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning” actually has some truth about it.
She explained: “There is genuine meteorological reasoning behind it, linked to the way sunlight scatters through the atmosphere and the typical movement of weather systems across the UK.”
Snow and Thunderstorms Remain Hardest Weather to Predict
We’re entering the snowy season across the US and it doesn’t get any easier for meteorologists to predict when snowfall is going to happen. Or how much snow is going to fall along the way. The same applies to thunderstorms according to Chalk.
She continued: Small changes in temperature, humidity or wind patterns can dramatically alter what happens on the ground. In the case of snow, a temperature difference of just one degree can mean the difference between snow, sleet or rain.
“Similarly, thunderstorms often develop from subtle changes in atmospheric conditions that can be difficult to pinpoint precisely.”
