S W Winds


After a northerly Wind for the most Part two months

or more, and then coming South, there are usually

three or four fair Days at first, and then, on the fourth

or fifth Day, comes Rain, or else the Wind turns North

again, and continues dry.



THIS is likewise a very judicious and very useful Observation, and yet

it is not a difficult matter to account for
t. It is a common

Observation, and a very true one, that there is usually fair Weather

before a settled course of Rain. The Winds that bring the dark rainy

Clouds that obscure the Sky, and cause dull cloudy Weather, often raise

these Vapours to such a height, that they are attracted into the cold

Region above our Sight, till being condensed there, they fall down upon

us again in Snow or Rain, according to our Author's Observation.



BUT if, after a seeming Tendency to Rain, there follow several Days of

fine Weather, it is a certain Indication that the Temper of the Air is

altered, and that these Vapours had been driven off before they had

time to condense, which is confirmed by the Change of the Wind on such

Occasions.



ALL these Observations are to be understood in a proper Latitude, and

not strictly and according to the very Letter. For Rain may fall the

sixth or seventh Day, or the Wind may change the second or third.

Besides, a Man who would make use of these Observations in the Country,

must consider attentively the Situation of the Place where he lives,



the bearing of the Sea, Marshes, Ponds, Lakes, Woods, Mountains, Rocks,

&c. For without making proper Allowances for these, all such

Observations on the Weather will be apt to fail him.



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