After Aunt Elsie and I finished talking about the past and its people, she would shake her head and say, “I tell yer now, ’tis a good t’ing I don’t ’ave ter put any wash on der clothesline in der marnin’. It won’t be very fine der marra after all dis talk about old times an’ dead people.”
• A day too fine, too calm, too warm with the barometer falling is a weather breeder.
• A light northwest wind will slacken bay ice.
• The bright edge of the milkmaid’s (Milky Way) path will give off a storm.
• A bright gleam (wind hound) in the vicinity of the sun is thought to presage a storm.
• If Corposant (St. Elmo’s fire) – seen playing around the topgallant masthead of a ship – is in the rigging, it is a sign of fair weather; if it moves down lower there will be a storm.
• A codfish with its puddick in its throat is a sign of an approaching storm.
• When gulls fly in from out at sea, a storm is not far behind.
• Rain before seven will stop by eleven.
• Water red with squid is a sign of northeast wind and rain.
• When ground is laden with dew there will be no rain.
• When the sky is yellow and the sea is glassy, there will be a storm.
• When flowers are sweet-smelling rain is coming.
• When the sun is drawing water it will be a fine day, but a storm is pending.
• Watch the early morning smoke from a chimney. If it rises straight up, a clear, fine day is ahead. If the smoke curls downward, weather will be bad.
• When the wind is inshore, it’s best to stay ashore.
• A gleam (weather light) on the sea signals a storm.
• A heavy rain is coming, sure. See the worms coming to the surface of the ground.
• Sea urchins clutch stones to steady themselves in bad weather.
• If the wind is in the east on Candlemas Day, there ’twill stick till the first of May.
• If Candlemas Day is fair and fine, the worst of winter is left behind.
• A cat is skittish before there are heavy gales.
• A frisky cat is thought to have a gale of wind in its tail.
• Sun dogs on the side of the moon call for a windy leeward day.
• When the wind is up from the northeast, there is not much fish.
• When rain comes before the wind, halliards, sheets, and reefpoints mind.
• When the wind is in the east ’tis neither good for man or beast.
• Rain early in the day will likely soon clear away.
• Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.
• If your goats come home in files, get your fish in covered piles.
• A snub-nosed cod is said to turn the direction of the wind in favour of the fishermen.
• If someone wears a bibbed cap backward it will cause northern winds the next day.
• Haydens (wild birds) are harbingers of bad weather.
• Gravel (ballast) in the stomach of a cod means that a storm is brewing.
• Stories about horses always bring gales of wind.
• If you see a carey chick (a small offshore bird that walks on water) near land, a storm is coming.
• When there is a star behind the moon there will be bad weather; when there is a star in front of the moon there will be civil weather.
• Tomorrow will be calm and sunny if the northern lights (merry dancers) are in the sky.
• If the northern lights are brilliant, there will be good weather before a storm.
• If the northern lights are flickering there will be a thaw or rain.
• Lots of stars signal bad weather.
• A milk vein in the sky means the wind will be strong or blow inland.
• Mackerel sky and mares’ tails make a sailor furl his sails.
• Mackerel sky and mares’ tails make a lofty ship carry low sails.
• A cloud formation like a cow’s or mare’s tail predicts strong winds.
• When the milky vein in the sky opens up, the wind is going to blow from where it forks.
• A beaver gathering lots of food is the sign of a cold, snowy winter.
• It is time to go fishing in spring at the first sign of a tickleace (a gull’s cry).
• Old seals jumping into the water is a sign of wind and snow.
• If day dawns are high (layers of clouds on the horizon at daybreak), there will be more wind than when they are low.
• Sea burning (i.e. brimming or water fire) is a sign of a northwest or south wind and plenty of fish.
• When the water burns, look out for wind.
• When distant hills appear near, rainy weather is coming.
• Watch the new moon (waxing stage). If you can hang a powder keg on the lower rim of the moon’s crescent, stormy weather is near.
• Bubbles on water during rain means in-wind (wind blowing from the sea to the land).
• The musical cadence of a loon heard in the night is a sign of wind.
• When the wind shifts against the sun, trust it not for back ’twill run.
• When the sun is shimmering as if it is dipped in a bowl of crystal and there are mares’ tails in the sky, bad weather is on its way.
• Squid hounds (jumpers, porpoises) jump out of the water after squid. When they leap in large schools, this is a sign of wind from the direction the porpoises are going.
• Jellyfish coming to the surface of the water is a sign of northeast wind.
• If Codroy Valley residents heard the train blow from a far distance during winter, they believed a mild spell was coming.
• Rote from the shore on a calm night indicates wind from that direction the next day. When the rote is easily heard, this is a weather sign: a storm on the way. It can only be heard when there is a calm, and usually at night.
• A halo around the moon means rain or snow.
• Lack of frost in the ground when snow comes means a short winter.
• Lots of frogs in the fields and dolphins in the water means a long, hot summer.
• Indian summer in October is a sign of a short, sharp winter.
• A year of snow brings a year of plenty.
• Loads of dogberries means a hard winter.
• The fox eye (circle) in the moon indicates bad weather.
• When an animal’s coat is heavy and a squirrel’s tail is very bushy, the coming winter will be hard.
• When the crescent-shaped moon is lying on its back, there will be fine weather.
• “Burning water” is a sign of south winds and plenty of fish, or of northwest winds.
Atruck driver sitting in a restaurant, not far from the famous “Wreckhouse winds” near Port aux Basques, looked down at his bowl of soup and made the remark, “It’s so windy outside that there’s a lop on me soup.”
• airsome (cold wind).
• baffles of wind.
• banshee wind (screeching, wailing).
• barber, barbarous, barbin’ wind (sharp, stinging).
• blows of wind.
• blustery winds (strong and noisy).
• butt-end foremost (the way a powerful northeast wind comes up).
• cat’s gale (heavy winds foretold by frolicking cats).
• close reef breeze (stiff breeze).
• crosswind (a wind blowing across a vessel’s path).
• dally (a slack wind).
• east-in wind (cold wind blowing from sea to shore).
• eddy flow (short puffs of wind striking in a contrary direction).
• faddering wind (wind taking turns blowing in all directions).
• faffering wind (to blow in sudden cold gusts).
• fierce wind (heavy, strong).
• flat calm, a (civil weather, no wind).
• freshening wind (a stir of wind slipping into a ripple on calm water).
• hog’s nose (a freak whirlwind at sea).
• in-wind (the wind is in from the sea).
• liner breeze (a high wind or gale blowing in when the sun crosses the line: the time of the equinox).
• northerner (a strong cold north wind).
• living screecher of a storm (severe wind with rain/snow).
• out-wind (wind blowing off the land seaward). If the wind is blowing off the land the first day of April, there will be out-winds for the rest of the month.
• pitch of wind, a (a squall).
• screecher (a howling wind).
• scuddy (sudden gusts of wind and snow).
• shuff (a gust of wind).
• smart breeze from the southwest, a (good for sailing).
• smokes of wind (gusts of wind carrying rain).
• smoky (a southwester: lazy, warm wind).
• snotty wind (wind from the southeast carrying rain, sleet, and snow).
• stepmother (a cutting north winter wind).
• stiff wind, a.
• storm of wind (a severe gale).
• strife of wind (a force or blast of wind).
• stun breeze (a sea wind about 20–25 knots).
• tingujak: The northwesterly wind is the strongest. It makes patterns in the snow that point in the northwesterly direction. A pattern, left in the snow from the northwest winds, is a compass. A stiff northwester is a rare wind in summer in Southern Labrador. On the island it stays the same for several days, same strength, same direction.
• tissy wind (stingingly cold).
• upwind (easterly and northeast wind, always cold).
• wind hard enough to blow the horns out of a cow (extremely hard wind).
• wind up and down the mast (blowing wildly from all directions).
• Wreckhouse winds: terribly strong winds which blow across Cape Ray from the Long Range Mountains in Newfoundland.
• Distant shores bright and clear indicate that rain is near.
• If butterflies and buttercups close up at night, there will be rain.
• Expect rain when a cat is washing its face.
• If the bottle-assed spider (common spider with bulbous body) is killed, rain will fall.
• There will be rain tomorrow if sheep are bawling.
• Dogs sleeping through the day and spiders active in their play are signs of rain.
• If you step on a beetle, there will be rain.
• Black-bellied plovers (shorebirds) cry before a rainfall.
• coming down by the reeves (in swirls and drifts).
• drash of rain (heavy rain).
• dwy of rain (a short shower).
• freezing rain (a glitter storm).
• lashings of rain (lots of rain).
• mauzy rain (drizzle).
• misky rain (fine rain).
• mizzling rain (drizzling rain).
• pelting down rain.
• plump shower (a downpour).
• pourin’ rain (raining heavily).
• raining be the reeves (raining heavily).
• raining streams.
• scad (a brief shower of rain, snow).
• streaming down rain.
• strong, driving rain.
• sun shower (the sun shining through fine rain).
• thundershower.
• “And that’s what it is, cold.”
• as cold as a cod’s nose.
• burning weather (cold enough to burn one’s hands with frostbite)
• cold enough to make everything stiff and creaky (creak cold).
• cold enough to turn one’s skin bassom (blue).
• perished with the cold.
• scrammed (stiff, cold).
• “Some cold, what!”
• “Talk about cold!”
• tow (bitterly cold).
• wonderful cold.
ballicatters, ballycatters ∼ flat, crumpled, or raftered ice along the shoreline.
banquese ice ∼ strings of ice floating a mile off shore along the Labrador coast in spring.
big ice ∼ a large, tight field of ice.
bust-up ice ∼ When the rapids in a river get blocked with ice, pressure builds up, water swells, and the ice bursts.
close ice ∼ ice packed together.
clump ∼ to jump from one pan of ice to another.
clumpers ∼ small pieces of ice broken off larger pieces.
coarse weather ∼ a stormy, snowy day.
conkerbells (ice candles) ∼ ice forming into icicles, shaped like carrots, and hanging from buildings.
dung mixen ∼ snow mixed with clay during the spring thaw.
dwighs (dwies, dwois) ∼ 1. intermittent snow flurries. 2. a short snowfall.
growlers ∼ pieces of floating ice (bergs) capable of ripping the bottom out of ships.
ice floes ∼ pans of ice floating in the ocean, sometimes filling bays.
ice rind ∼ thin layer of ice that makes a tinkling sound when it breaks.
ice quars ∼ water running down sides of rocks and freezing.
island of ice ∼ iceberg.
lolly ice ∼ churning, flighty ice; ice not caught over.
meadow ∼ stretch of ice, icefield.
new ice ∼ ice just caught over.
nish ice ∼ thin ice, ice not caught over.
open spring ∼ ice floes moved off shore.
paddy’s broom (March 18) ∼ the day after St. Patrick’s Day when a storm is expected (equinoctial gales) due to the sun crossing the equator about that time.
panting ice ∼ ice moved by a long swell.
perkallujah (Inuit) ∼ iceberg.
pinnacle ∼ raftered ice.
pummy ∼ chunks of ice mixed with slush.
quar ∼ to form heavy ice.
quired pans ∼ ice pans piled up.
raftered ice ∼ overlapping ice that can climb as high as five storeys.
roller ∼ a small iceberg that rolls over.
rot hole ∼ a soft and honeycombed place in a field of ice.
rubber ice (buckley) ∼ newly formed and bending sea ice.
run abroad ∼ ice breaking up into loose pans.
run together ∼ to form a close pack of ice.
saltwater ice ∼ sea ice formed in coastal waters.
set fast ∼ water frozen solid.
silver thaw ∼ ice coating on ground and trees after rain and frost, sometimes produced by showers of rain falling during a frost, that turn to ice as soon as they touch an object.
Sheila’s Brush ∼ a heavy snowfall around March 18.
sina (Inuit) ∼ floe edge: far end of ice at the open ocean.
sinak (Inuit) ∼ open water; the edge of the ice.
sish ∼ ice scum around shore.
sish over ∼ the forming of a thin layer of ice.
sishy ∼ loose fragments of floating ice.
skein ∼ a narrow strip or string of floating ice.
sketch of ice ∼ a very thin spread of ice.
skinny ∼ dangerously close, skinny ice.
slatchy ∼ water holding loose ice.
sleery snow ∼ soft and motley.
slob, slub ∼ slush ice.
slottery ∼ heavy, wet snow.
swatch ∼ a weak or open place on ice.
tippy ∼ a small pan of ice.
way ice ∼ loose ice that is easy to navigate.
weather edge ∼ the windward side of an icefield.