|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Surely a cow's flanks would be 90 degrees each side of its head, assuming that it was facing forward rather than over one shoulder, that is.
Bingley
Bingley
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
flanks to the windOh, wow is *far too well brought up to use the word 'tails'. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
"Mare's tails and halibut scales, tall ships will set low sails." I like weather sayings but was never sure exactly what weather would delight a sailor, especially if it was supposed to delight the shepherds too.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Mare's tails and halibut scales, tall ships will set low sails
mares tail and halibut scales, are types of clouds that ofter are seen on the trail edge of high pressure system, the begining of low... and low pressure systems usually mean comming storms.. there are several weather/cloud sights that have the 'offical' names of clouds, and the common names.. (one of the cumulius' is commonly called a 'thunderhead'-- thunder heads are pretty self evident.. they are clouds associated with thunderstorms!
mares tail are high thin, long wispy clouds.. they really look like mares tails!
and no one who works out doors is thrilled with a what we on east coast of US call a no'easter. No'easter's are not just rain (its raining yet again to day..) but storms like we had saturday last.. visibily was under 500 feet (i could barely see across the street, and could not see the building behind the car park across the street!) there was huge lightning, (my building was hit, and a dozen bricks from the parapat knocked loose.. fortunately the heavy rain had driven everyone from the street, and no one was hit..
the rain was so heavy, some lines of the subway were halted by flooding.. the rain was running down the subway stairs faster than storm drains could accomadate it, and platforms, and eventually the tracks were flooded! i wouldn't want to be at sea with a storm like that bearing down..(it was fast moving and passed in an about a half hour, but it was a wild and savage storm while it lasted!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Nor'easters are so called for their winds, which come out of the northeast. It was Benjamin Franklin who first established that the storm itself comes out of the southwest. He did so by comparing observations of a storm that came through his Philadelphia with friends in New York City and Boston, through which the same storm came at successively later times.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Mares tails do look like the name suggests. Halibut scales are those dozens of little clouds all organised that make the sky look like blue and white gingham. or um like halibut scales.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,532 Likes: 1
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 10,532 Likes: 1 |
variations on the theme:
It was "mackerel scales and mares' tails" where I cum frum, and also "red sky at night, sailor's delight..."
But they meant the same thing as with halibut and shepherds.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,315
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
247
guests, and
2
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
