Red at night, sailors’ delight.
Red in the morning, sailors take warning.
Bird on the wing, it’s time for spring?
Swings in temperature? It’s an Al Gore lecture.
Blood moon – werewolves soon.
Okay, I’m getting silly now and making some of these up. But weather encourages superstition, with all its violence and unpredictability. And Al Roker. Fuck that guy. There’s no way he’s human. Humans don’t smile like that. Humans aren’t that ecstatic to look at a Doppler map first thing in the morning.
Anyway, so one of these portents of climactic evil is the Moon Ring. I remember these well from the Lubbock years, probably because the sky was very open and clear, and as such these events were dramatic. Also since they indicate fronts, it always meant tornadoes.
Ohio isn’t quite as tornado-y (although it’s certainly getting there). But nevertheless these are still cool. Here’s a picture from a few days ago:
And it did indeed rain for a day following that. So there’s some potential truth in the old adages. But really, it’s just the coolness factor.
And if you want to read way too much about their formation, they’re called 22° halos, because that’s the geometric alignment at which they form, via suspended hexagonal ice crystals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22%C2%B0_halo
And here’s one from last year that I apparently never posted:
As both of these were in the month of November, I think their appearance indicates something much simpler – it’s getting colder.
But still cool.
–Simon