Weather Forecasting: The Country Way

by Robin Page

Ever wanted to know if the sun will really shine tomorrow?Well, if you follow the wonderful, clear-sighted advice in this classic book, you could find yourself able to make accurate forecasts whatever the weather - ensuring your camping trips are dry, your nature trails comfortable or bracing, and your wild swims just the right kind of wet.Telling you what happens if it rains on St Swithin's Day, or if there's a red sky at night, if it snows at Easter or if spiders spin long webs, Weather Forecasting The Country Way will put you in touch with thousands of years of British wisdom and heritage.In amusing and delightful prose, Robin Page shows how applying simple common sense to country lore - based on observing animal and plant behaviour, watching clouds, the stars and the moon - anyone can become well-versed in Britain's difficult to predict and often wayward weather.

Genres: Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 1987

Reviews

[Radiantflux · Rating 2 out of 5]

5th book for 2024

Picked up on a whim when searching for another book on a secondhand website. This very short book details various old country sayings and beliefs about the weather. Although the sayings are charming, and the book has lovely woodblocks throughout, the knowledge seems unfortunately mostly useless. The only thing I am going to check out this year is the belief that the singing of green woodpeckers signifies rain coming.

2-stars.

[Kathy Piselli · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, a fun book with snips of Page's humor ("Flaming Junes has nothing to do with crematoriums", if you see a rainbow arc below you you are at Victoria Falls, beware of watching ducks instead of paying attention to your driving) and if you enjoyed that, check out his tweets, as I did. You may not care about his politics, but you will find a sensible conservationist. The other main reason to read this book are the illustrations by naturalist Thomas Bewick, who died in 1828 and has two birds named for him. The country ways described here may not hold true now that we have global changes in our climate, but the important takeaway is that they arose from observation. If you care about conservation, spend some time in a rural area, and observe what's around you.

[Chris Malone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given a copy of this book by a friend in the 1980s, treasured it, but moved house too many times and it ended up on someone else's bookshelves. I managed to buy a second-hand copy, and am really glad that I did. It is a delightful small, modest book, which is easy to read and explores the folklore behind old-fashioned weather forecasting. The woodcut illustrations are beautiful, and enhance the content. The value of this book for me, in 2020, is its simple un-technical innocence, evoking the colloquialisms of the 1970s. Whether the weather can still be predicted through these methods, with global warming and urban cityscapes, is a pertinent question.

[Vimal Rajaseharan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call it as a small handy book of weather lore. It can be called as the farmer's way of weather forecasting. It's an interesting book which teaches us the old way of weather forecasting using the knowledge of Natural History. Lovable.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based largely on English lore, this book compiles weather-predicting aphorisms of the "Red sky at night, sailors' delight" variety and other Farmer's Almanac like guidelines for seasons and weather based on observing flora and fauna.

[Mare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun bit of history and weather lore.

[I Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those days when you stay tucked up by the fire with a cocoa or perhaps even when resting in a sunny spot on your 10-mile hike, this is the book to read.

It's short, so light, and written in a lovely simple style, which makes it incredibly easy to read so one can relax and enjoy to weather lore.

A wonderful and varied collection made even better by the fact that the author is a farmer and therefore has much experience of observing and verifying the reliability of such beliefs.

I would have liked the book to expand and explain scientifically why each statements were true, although I realise this would have made it more intellectual and this wasn't trying to be a book for hard slogging study.