Why are clouds called mares'tails?
The clouds occur at very high altitudes, at a temperature of about −50 to −40C. They are commonly known as mares' tails because of their likeness to horse tails. An old weather proverb goes, "Mares' tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails."
Why is it called a mares tail?
They are commonly known as mares' tails because of their likeness to horse tails. An old weather proverb goes, "Mares' tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails." Together, cirrus uncinus clouds and patchy altocumulus clouds often mean that rain is on its way.
What is the difference between a Mare's Tail and a Mackerel's Tail?
The mare’s tails are wispy cirrus clouds while the mackerel scales are small clumpy altocumulus clouds resembling fish scales in the sky. In the days of large sailing ships, this meant a storm would be approaching soon and the sails should be lowered to protect from the accompanying high winds.
Do mares'tails mean rain is coming?
An old weather proverb goes, "Mares' tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails." Together, cirrus uncinus clouds and patchy altocumulus clouds often mean that rain is on its way. Here's a selection of the gorgeous mares' tails you've been posting.
What do mares tail clouds look like?
Mare's tails are cirrus clouds found high in the atmosphere, which are pulled into long streamers resembling the tail of a horse. Mackerel scales are altocumulus clouds which look like fish scales.
What does mare's tails and mackerel scales make tall ships take in their sails mean?
“Mare's tails and mackerel scales make tall ships take in their sails.” Means: Both tails and scales refer to cirrocumulus clouds (a warm front). Warm fronts bring quickly changing winds…which could mean trouble for a ships sail's so…you should probably bring them in. “Clear moon, frost soon.”
What are the clouds that look like cotton balls?
Cumulus clouds are puffy shaped. They may look like popcorn or cotton and have flat bottoms. They are low in the sky.
Which clouds look like cotton balls and mean fair weather?
1) Cumulus On a sunny day, the sun's radiation heats the land, which in turn heats the air just above it. This warmed air rises by convection and forms Cumulus. These “fair weather” clouds look like cotton wool.
Does a mackerel sky mean rain?
A mackerel sky is a common term for clouds made up of rows of cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds displaying an undulating, rippling pattern similar in appearance to fish scales; this is caused by high altitude atmospheric waves. Precipitation cloud? No, but may signify approaching precipitation.
What weather does a mackerel sky predict?
A “mackerel sky” is one that has a lot of cirrocumulus clouds, which often precede an approaching warm front. Warm fronts can bring veering winds and precipitation. This weather proverb is an apt way to describe how a sailor might respond if he saw “mackerel scales” approaching.
What are the 10 clouds called?
The foundation consists of 10 major cloud types. In addition to cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus clouds, there are cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus, and cumulonimbus clouds.
What are big fluffy clouds called?
Cumulus cloudsCumulus clouds look like fluffy, white cotton balls in the sky.
What do wispy clouds mean?
Cirrus clouds are wispy, feathery, and composed entirely of ice crystals. They often are the first sign of an approaching warm front or upper-level jet streak. Unlike cirrus, cirrostratus clouds form more of a widespread, veil-like layer (similar to what stratus clouds do in low levels).
What do you call off clouds that indicate approaching bad weather?
Cumulonimbus clouds – thunder clouds that have built up from cumulus clouds. Their bases are often quite dark. These clouds can forecast some of the most extreme weather, including heavy rain, hail, snow, thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes. Stratus – dull greyish clouds that stretch across and block the sky.
What does it mean when you see a shelf cloud?
Shelf clouds are harmless themselves but typically indicate strong storms. Shelf clouds form at the leading edge of a thunderstorm. Shelf clouds can even form before a derecho strikes. If you see a shelf cloud coming your way, it probably means you are about to get hit by a strong thunderstorm.
What do fast moving clouds mean?
The higher up you go in the sky, the faster the clouds move. This is because the wind is faster at higher heights above the surface. We sometimes get clouds that can travel huge distances, and cross the oceans. These clouds are following a particularly strong wind, called the jet stream.
Does mackerel fish have scales and fins?
The scales of the mackerel are so small that its skin feels velvety to the touch; indeed they are hardly to be seen on the belly with the naked eye, but those about the pectoral fins and on the shoulders are somewhat larger.
What is the meaning sailing ship?
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails.
What is a 4 masted ship called?
9) The Bark (Barque) They had four masts, each bearing square sails on the fore topmast and fore-and-aft sails on the aft mast. These vessels were commonly used by traders to carry extremely high volumes of cargo from Australia to Europe.
What is a 3 masted sailing ship called?
Barque. A vessel of three or more masts, fore and aft rigged on the aftermost mast and square-rigged on all others. Sometimes spelled 'bark'.
The Meaning of the Weather Proverb
In the past, people looked at the weather and related it to something in their lives. For instance, cloud types are often described by their shapes in the sky. The mare’s tails are wispy cirrus clouds while the mackerel scales are small clumpy altocumulus clouds resembling fish scales in the sky.
How Has Technology Changed Weather Folklore?
Today, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has the Dial-A-Buoy program. Part of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) the program is designed to give sailors advanced meteorological and oceanographic data. A sailor can literally call for data from a series of buoys all around the world.
Are Mackerel Scales and Mare's Tails Good Predictors of Approaching Storms?
In short, yes. The cloud systems that develop prior to a storm will often appear clumpy and wispy like a fish scale or horsetail!
What happens when you put a cloud below a cirrus?
Put a cloud below the cirrus, however, and the dynamic changes. “What happens now that you have a cloud below the cirrus?” Stephens said. “It reduces the ability of the cirrus to trap heat. So the greenhouse effect of a cirrus cloud depends on what’s below it.” This complicates the already perplexing task of mapping clouds on a global scale, which is exactly what scientists need to do to calculate the sway clouds hold over the energy budget. Yet Stephens and L’Ecuyer took it a step further to capture a profile of clouds throughout the entire atmosphere, from top to bottom. Stephens said, “We needed to know: Is it just cirrus and one cloud layer below, or cirrus and two cloud layers? And how high are they?”
How do clouds affect the atmosphere?
These images show the effects of clouds on the atmosphere. Red areas indicate places where clouds heat the atmosphere and blue areas are places where they cool it. The measurements show that the low clouds typically found off the west coasts of continents tend to cool the atmosphere while deeper clouds near the equator and over the Amazon tend to heat it. Likewise shallower clouds that occur during winter storms tend to cool the atmosphere while summertime thunderstorms have strong warming effects. Thus, the atmosphere over North America is warmed by clouds in summer months and cooled during winter months. The gray area around the pole indicates where measurements are not available. Data are from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) and other NASA A-Train satellites. (Courtesy T. L’ Ecuyer/NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center [LaRC ASDC])
What does the proverb say about the mackerel scales?
For centuries, many a sailor has learned to heed the message of high, windswept clouds to batten down their hatches. As the proverb goes, “Mares’ tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships to carry low sails.” Together, wispy cirrus clouds resembling horse tails and patchy cirrocumulus signal that a rain storm is on its way.
Why are clouds important?
Because clouds play a large role in determining the global climate, an enormous amount of data must go into analyzing them, and there is no shortage of factors to consider. That means that even with massive amounts of data from the most sophisticated instruments available, there are a great number of unknowns.
Where is the cirrus cloud?
High, wispy cirrus clouds stream over Big Bend National Park in Texas, USA. Many of the cirrus shown here have been pulled by the wind in such a way that they resemble horses’ tails. (Courtesy M. H. Whitten)
What happens when warm air finds its higher spot in the atmosphere?
When that warm air finds its higher spot in the atmosphere, it condenses into rain or ice droplets, de pending on the altitude. But cirrus clouds hamper this cycling of air, and much of the precipitation that should follow.
Where do stratus clouds appear?
Stratus clouds are uniform and flat, with little definition. They appear frequently in mountain valleys and hover on mountain slopes. They bring cover from the sun but little precipitation, usually not enough to thwart any outing you might have. One can see stratocumulus clouds often and everywhere.
What is the name of the cloud that is a heap of clouds?
Altocumulus Clouds. As the name describes, altocumulus clouds are middle-level, heap-like clouds, often appearing in rows or “streets,” with blue sky between the rows. The form is strongly reminiscent of the sand ripples in a tidal pool.
What is a cumulonimbus cloud?
Cumulonimbus clouds are very dark, flatbottomed clouds with immense tops that can frequently be seen building into a characteristic anvil shape. Anvil–keep this image in mind, because it means you are likely to be pounded. These clouds begin early as cumulus congestus and turn mean.
What type of cloud is a thin veil-like layer?
Cirrocumulus Clouds. Cirrostratus clouds spread as a thin, veil-like layer across part or all of the sky. These high icy clouds form a featureless, hazy layer as they thicken. Sometimes, they produce characteristic halos as sun or moonlight refracts through the crystals.
What are Cirrocumulus clouds?
Cirrocumulus clouds are usually high ice crystal clouds with visible rows or ripples, not unlike an old washboard. The clouds are often aligned in rows, alternating with blue sky. They exist briefly, with really no immediate weather consequence.
Why are the clouds blurry?
You open the door, look across the sky to the horizon and see dark gray to deep blue, layered clouds, parts of which are blurry because of visible precipitation. These are nimbostratus clouds, a classic rain or snow formation. In areas with distant horizons, one can see these clouds as an approaching storm.
What is an altostratus cloud?
Altostratus clouds are flat, uniform sheets of gray or blue-gray flannel, layered across the sky. An identification key is the lack of any feature or differentiation. Occasionally, the sun is dimly visible, but there is no halo. These cloud formations are vast and are familiar in the northern states and Canada. The character of altostratus is monotonous and boring, without being acutely threatening. The prevalence and duration of these clouds dampen spirits, not clothes, and while they are cloud light, they weigh on the mind.
What is the name of the cloud that looks like a mackerel?
This bit of weather lore isn’t exactly about fish. The mackerel scales in the rhyme refers to cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds, which are middle-level, heap-like clouds that often appear in rows, like sand ripples in a tidal pool, or more accurately, like scales on a mackerel.
Why do fish jump when it rains?
When rain is “nigh” or on its way, it’s usually accompanied by a low-pressure system which can cause plant particles that were trapped at the bottom of a lake to rise thus providing feed for small fish. The small fish are, of course, food for larger fish like trout. So you may see them jumping as they feast.
What is a mackerel sky?
What is a mackerel sky? It’s a name given to a sky covered with those same puffy cirrocumulus and altocumulus clouds arranged in a pattern of waves, with blue sky peeking through so that it resembles the scales on the back of a mackerel.
Why should sails be lowered?
Mariners knew that the combination of “mare’s tail” cirrus clouds above “mackerel scales” altocumulus clouds meant deteriorating weather conditions—high winds and precipitation was coming, so the sails should be lowered to keep them protected. The scaly fish makes an appearance in another old weather lore saying:
Why does it rain only for a short period?
But it would mean rain only for a short period (“never long wet”), because as the warm front moves quickly along, so will the precipitation. And speaking of fish, another favorite weather lore saying you may be familiar with involves trout: Trout jump high. When rain is nigh.
Do these old weather lore rhymes still hold water today? And what do they have to do with fish?
Weather lore is one of our favorite subjects here at Farmers’ Almanac. Each fall, we share the signs of a hard winter, and it is our most popular weather lore story among our readers. But there are many other sayings passed down from our ancestors who relied on nature to forecast what was to come. How many of these fish-related weather lore sayings have you heard?
How did the Mare's Tails get their name?
Commonly called Mare's Tails, these cirrus clouds form high up in the atmosphere and get their name from their curly-ended appearance.
Why do Mare's tails curl?
Mare's Tails form when stronger winds higher in the atmosphere, usually warmer air, blow these cirrus clouds and cause them to curl with the moving air . It's this warmer wind that usually brings rain to the forecast. RELATED: The science behind snow, sleet or rain.
