weather misconceptions

Groundhog's Day-

Aches-

Red Sky at sunset/rise bring good/bad weather respectively-

colored skies for tornadoes 

halos around the sun and moon bring rain-

squeaking, and sticky furnature brings rain-

still wind brings good weather-

cows facing east/west-

months with R in them get bad weather-

onion skins tell the coming weather (thickness to coldness)-

This is a list of ten proverbs about the weather that I have gathered, some of these work, and some of them do not, to start with, I am going to eliminate all of those that have to do with long term predictions, the actions of animals, or fixed dates because they are always wrong. That means that months with Rs in them and thick onions skins in the fall do not bring bad weather, and cows are off the hook, as well as groundhogs. I found a website by the senior climatologist at Environment Canada from 1997, and it had a list of reliable weather proverbs, but no explaination as to why, but from that list we can say that squeaking furnature, halos around the sun and moon, and the red skys at sun rise and set, and are correct. For the joint aches it apears to be that drops in barometric pressure cause inlamation all around the body until the body has adjusted to the new pressures, and arthritic joints, being sensitized to the pressures of movement, are affected adversely by this inflamation. Many tales have to do with clumping salt of squeaking and stuck furnature predicting rain, this is because of moisture, wood swells in humid air, also the kind of air that causes rain when it moves.  Halos around the sun and moon are caused by ice clouds very high in the sky, these are signs of more moist air, and cold air meeting, causing rain. Still wind is a sign of a high pressure zone, a large down draft, blowing weather away, and they do not often move very much. Finally, I come to the skies being pale yellow or green as an indicator of tornadoes, this is one from personal experience, having lived in Marshall Minnesota for six years, I do not remember a time that the weather alert radio did not issue a tornado warning when the sky was that color, or a time when the national defense sirens went when the sky was not that color, and I remember hiding from many tornadoes in that basement. I do not know if this is an accurate association  but it certainly means rain and severe wind.