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benjesty2002 t1_j7bocoe wrote

I've always heard it as shepherds rather than sailors. Is this a country difference? I'm in the UK.

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linuxknight OP t1_j7bsb6x wrote

I live in New England, US. Because of all the ocean trade, i think it's relative to mariners.

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ninety6days t1_j7c66hc wrote

I mean

The UK has some history of seafaring too.

That said, irish here and we've always said shepherd's too.

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Grubbens t1_j7cjiwi wrote

We don't really have shepherds so it makes sense that it would be sailing related in the US.

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cjb5210 t1_j7d5097 wrote

I live in CT and was going to say this post immediately reminded me of the CT / NE coast. Awesome pic / gif / video, OP!

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tommytraddles t1_j7c5hfq wrote

Both are said in the UK. Might be a regional thing, based on where the wool trade was primary versus where going to sea was more common?

It goes back a long way, though.

You are all fishermen. When it is evening, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red." And in the morning, "It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening."

All of you know how to interpret the signs of the earth and sky. How is it you cannot interpret the signs of the times?

~ Matthew 16:23.

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Errodav t1_j7cw5e5 wrote

I'm from Yorkshire, always heard Shepherd's. The wife is from Newcastle and she always uses Sailors. So it all depends on whether you're from a farming or shipbuilding county.

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ppitm t1_j7ccbmu wrote

This saying only makes logical sense if the weather pattern is generally clouds moving west to east. So that might not really describe England the way it does the eastern US.

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S1075 t1_j7dbsqu wrote

The flow is overwhelmingly west to east in the northern hemisphere, but it's still just a saying. It's never going to be scientifically accurate.

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ppitm t1_j7dlk7w wrote

It's scientifically accurate-ish. The idea is that the dawn sun shines on the underside of the band of clouds about to dump rain and wind on you. While the setting sun demonstrates that approaching clouds are just a narrow band, not a major system. Ergo the weather will pass by in the night and tomorrow will be fine.

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Strangelight84 t1_j7c73rp wrote

I've heard the same.

Given that red skies are created by light scattering off / through clouds, I've always assumed that the sailor's warning is of an incoming storm and the shepherd's delight is of temperatures rising as cloud cover increases.

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benjesty2002 t1_j7cujlb wrote

We say both parts for shepherds - "Red sky in the morning, shepherds take warning. Red sky at night, shepherds delight."

I guess both professions care about storms, just for different reasons.

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Strangelight84 t1_j7fak8l wrote

I find the folk knowledge embedded - here, effectively, of weather forecasting - in some of this stuff really interesting.

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henrycharleschester t1_j7ex0px wrote

Yeah I’ve never heard sailors either, I’m Notts/Derby though so shepherds makes more sense.

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BeyondAddiction t1_j7cggnc wrote

I've only ever heard "sailor's" but then again, we were actually going sailing so 🤷‍♀️

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demondied1 t1_j7exjpp wrote

In Australia I hear Shepard’s too. Red at night is a Shepard’s delight, red at morn is a Shepard’s warn.

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