Well, it seems many of us are as reliable as a groundhog - which is to say, not really reliable at all!! 1. F - Late-night rains and early morning rains may simply be the last precipitation of a passing weather front. However, since fronts pass at night as often as they do in the day, morning rain is no predictor of a dry afternoon. However, this lore can describe non-frontal weather. Given sufficient surface heating, a late-day rainstorm may continue to develop into the night, produce early precipitation, then dissipate by late morning. This, though, is the exception rather than the rule. Only 40% of rain is produced by convective events - 60% is the result of a frontal passage. 2. T - There have been medical studies done which indicate some people experience this effect. The most likely reason is that with a fall in atmospheric pressure, blood vessels dilate slightly in reaction. This has the effect of aggravating already-irritated nerves near corns, cavities, or arthritic joints. Studies are inconclusive, however, with some researchers attributing this effect to selective memory. 3. T - This rule may be true under a few special circumstances, otherwise it is false. OK, so I'll take either as a correct answer. By standing with one's back to the ground-level wind and observing the movement of the clouds, it is possible to determine whether the weather will improve or deteriorate. For the Northern Hemisphere, it works like this: If the upper-level clouds are moving from the right, a low-pressure area has passed and the weather will improve; if from the left, a low pressure area is arriving and the weather will deteriorate. (Reverse for the Southern Hemisphere.) This is known as the "crossed-winds" rule. Clouds traveling parallel to but against the wind may indicate a thunderstorm approaching. Outflow winds typically blow opposite to the updraft zone, and clouds carried in the upper level wind will appear to be moving against the surface wind. However, if such a storm is in the offing, it is not necessary to observe the cloud motions to know rain is a good possibility. The nature of airflows directly at a frontal boundary can also create conditions in which lower winds contradict the motions of upper clouds, and the passage of a frontal boundary is often marked by precipitation. Most often, however, this situation occurs in the lee of a low pressure area, to the north of the frontal zones and convergence region, and does not indicate a change in weather, but rather, that the weather, fair or showery, will remain so for a period of hours at least. 4. T - Fog is formed when the air cools enough that the vapor pressure encourages condensation over evaporation. In order for the air to be cool on a summer night, the sky must be clear, so excess heat can be radiated into space. Cloudy skies act like a blanket, absorbing and reradiating the heat, keeping it in. So if it is cool enough (and clear enough) for fog to form, it will probably be clear the next day. Winter fog is the result of two entirely different circumstances. Above the ocean or a large lake, air is typically more humid than above land. When the humid air moves over cold land, it will form fog and precipitation. (To the east of the North American Great Lakes, this is a common phenomenon, and is known as the "lake effect.")[16] In northerly climates, ice fog may form when the temperature drops substantially below freezing. It is almost exclusively an urban phenomenon, when the air is so cold that any vapor pressure results in condensation, and additional vapor emitted by automobiles, household furnaces, and industrial plants simply accumulates as fog. 5. F - "Blows its horn" refers to thunderstorms. While March thunderstorms indicate that the weather is unusually warm for that time of year (thunderstorms can occur only with a sufficiently large temperature difference between ground and sky and sufficient amounts of moisture to produce charge differential within a cloud),[25] it is no indicator of the long-term weather trend. It is still unwise to plant your annuals before the long May weekend. 6. T - this is a solar halo. 7. T - quoted by Matthew in the Bible and Shakespeare, in his poem Venus and Adonis, as well Norse lore. Weather systems typically move from west to east, and red clouds result when the sun shines on their undersides at either sunrise or sunset. At these two times of day, the sun's light is passing at a very low angle through a great thickness of atmosphere commonly known as The Belt of Venus. The result of which is the scattering out of most of the shorter wavelengths - the greens, blues, and violets - of the visible spectrum, and so sunlight is heavy at the red end of the spectrum. If the morning skies are red, it is because clear skies to the east permit the sun to light the undersides of moisture-bearing clouds coming in from the west. Conversely, in order to see red clouds in the evening, sunlight must have a clear path from the west in order to illuminate moisture-bearing clouds moving off to the east. So there you go - more weather info that you ever wanted to have. If you are typical gardeners, you just want to know when you can plant your peas and onions! So for Annette: For Bobbie, Linda and Cyn: Thanks for playing. See you all next week. Nancy.

Thats okay! I just looked at my iris order invoice and I already ordered Red At Night in April. :0) I have about 40 new ones coming in July. I really should just tape the list up next to the computer before I respond to posts. :0) Happy Growing!! vina

Not being able to find the right button to turn off the flash on my wife's camera did make for some different effects on those. If they were spirits, they were cold ones as they peppered me. ;)

Congratulations Mayme ~ love your quilt!! Did you use a pattern? I love looking at all the quilts....much inspiration and so much talent. It is so informative to read the descriptive comments. It was nice to see the "challenge" was taken literally & all the new techniques, fabrics & designs everyone accomplished. Congratulations to all who participated & finished on time - you all are winners! I got overwhelmed with job responsibilities, so had to back out of the challenge, but I did get most of the top completed ~ and it was a new challenge for me ~ It too was a Ricky Tims Convergence quilt - the twin to "Circle Meets the Square" by Polardream. The colors & fabrics are eerily alike ~ when I opened the pics, I thought I somehow had mistakenly sent a picture! Yours is finished and I love it! All the other quilts were so different from one another, this coincidence must mean that Polardream & I must have been separated at birth!~LOL~ A big thank you to Vicky and Kate! And a question for Kate-is it possible to post these pictures with the names of the quilters in the Gallery section at a later date? Those pages seem to move much slower, and they are definitely inspirational.