The Weather Notebook: Geese, Dutchman and the Devil

Geese, Dutchman and the Devil
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Dave Thurlow, Host

Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory. Unique words and phrases are often passed down like family heirlooms from generation to generation, many of which are weather-related. Today on the show, we're going to hear some of your unique weather words and phrases.

Julie Terstrip from Industry, IL, a listener of affiliate station WIUM, learned a term from her grandfather about a heavy downpour:

"My grandfather used to say that when a big, heavy rainfall came in the summer it was a goose strangler. And I'm assuming he meant that the water was so high it was gonna strangle the goose, I don't know."

There's also a familiar weather saying regarding Dutchman. Here's Ben Dibble, a listener of New Hampshire Public Radio:

"When I grew up the thing was if it was a cloudy day but you could look up and see a small patch of blue then it would be a nice day and the saying was the blue was the size of a pair of Dutchman's britches."

Finally, we hear from Fran Koski, a listener of KRZA in Alamosa, CO who has an interesting saying when it's both sunny and raining at the same time:

"People say the devil is beating his wife. I've lived in a variety of states and heard this pretty much everywhere."

'The devil beating his wife', which originated in Hungary, is actually only one of many proverbs that describe rain and sunshine happening at the same time. Some of the others include "foxes are on a marriage parade," "witches are doing their wash," and "a tailor is going to hell"!

For more weather sayings, be sure to visit our website at mountwashington.org. Thanks to Subaru and the National Science Foundation.