Mackerel Sky

Not long ago I read on one of the Pommy blogs (I can’t remember which one) that a Mackerel Sky has a saying about the weather, but I couldn’t remember what it was.  Mind you, before I had read the blog post I didn’t even know what a Mackerel Sky was.

Well, there was a beautiful Mackerel Sky when I left work on Monday afternoon.

It had changed by the time I arrived home.

And then again shortly afterwards.  Rather lovely.

I asked Mum what it meant and she wasn’t sure either, so I looked it up on good old Wikipedia.  It appears that a Mackeral Sky is an old, disintegrating frontal system.  Little, if any rain most often follows a mackerel sky.

There seems to be a few sayings about a Mackerel Sky. "Mackerel sky, mackerel sky. Never long wet and never long dry" seems to be the most popular.  “Mackerel in the sky, three days dry” is another and the one that was on the Pommy blog was “Mackerel Sky, not twenty four hours dry”.  So, take your pick from that lot.

The verdict is that we have had beautiful warm, though breezy days on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but apparently Friday is going to be somewhat feral. So maybe the first two sayings are the most accurate (at least on this occasion).