Local Weather Lore

It is well accepted that and English Summer consists of three sunny days and a thunderstorm. Will it be fine Today? It is most likely to be fine: on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday first thing in the morning when there is a low tide with wind from the East or North if it was fine yesterday with a red sky last evening a rising barometer if all else fails, when the forecasters say so For the record, Snow falls on average on 7-10 days, and is still lying at 9am on up to 5 days; max depth 8th Dec 1967 10 inches; 7-8 February 1847 when the Worthing Chichester train was abandoned in drifts. It rains 155 days a year to a total of 28 inches; wettest year 1960 41 inches. Sunshine average 1821 hours. Temperature mean 10.5 degrees, average Max August 20.5 Sea temperature in August 18.5 degrees, in February 6 degrees. Days with gale: 15-20 Most famous gales: 27th November 1703 destroyed Ferring village and the Eddystone Lighthouse. A number of capital ships of the Royal Navy were driven onto the Goodwin Sands with tremendous loss of life. a storm on 7th July 1853 produced hailstones 5 inches in diameter and did great damage to the emerging glass house industry, and a relief fund was set up. 1st January 1877 tidal flooding; 24 January 1907 on the beaches at Shoreham, Worthing and Littlehampton, the waves froze as the broke, leaving ice sculptures on the beach, and ice pillars formed on the posts of the breakwaters; 22 March 1913 when Worthing Pier was washed away; 22 July 1929 (or was it 1927?) a 20ft tidal wave hit Worthing beach and we think someone was drowned along the coast at Lancing. 15-16 October 1987 The Hurricane, when a gust of 115mph was recorded at Shoreham; 26-27 February 1990 tidal flooding; Other countries have a climate, in the UK we just have weather. Weather is local. Goring weather is local and we have listened to the locals for their words of weather wisdom.

	It always rains at weekends. Well not quite; but certainly the three days for better weather are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then its more cloudy on through Sunday. This is because of the buildup of pollution during the week which gets into the clouds and eventually causes rain.

	The Goring Desert - the rain is said to go north when it reaches the Riffe at Ferring and only comes south again when it reaches the Adur at Shoreham. On average it rains only 155 days a year, compares with over 180 in Surrey.

	Rain from the South - rain all day. Rain from the West - intermittant rain. Rain from the East - unlikely. Rain from the North - never

	The weather seems to get better at low tide

	The weather also seems to be better first thing in the morning, but then all early-risers say that.

	The weather forecasts are right 88.1% of the time, compares with 84.2% for Cornwall and Scotland (Birmingham University Survey)

	There is a 70% chance that the weather today will be same as yesterday

	Red sky at night - shepherds delight, red sky in the morning - shepherds warning, dew before midnight - next day bright rain before seven, fine before 11 all 70% chance of being right

	Cows lie down when it is going to rain. Dogs eat grass before rain. Birds perch on the telephone wires before rain March winds and April showers - bring forth May flowers Halo round the sun or moon - rain or snow is coming soon. One swallow does not a summer make The sudden storm lasts not three hours Clear moon frost soon The higher the clouds, the better the weather Cold is the night - when stars shine bright

	If all else fails you can blame the weather on: El Nino the divertion of the Gulf Stream Melting of the polar icecaps Sun Spots Depletion of the ozone layer Chernobyl The Labour government

with ideas from Natural Weather Wisdom by Uncle Offa - SPA Ltd ISBN 1 85421 146 3

Goring-by-Sea Sitemap Weather

Contributed by Richard Waller
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