HERE'S THE SCOOP FROM THE EXPERT

Hi All,

In a recent newsletter I mentioned the halo around the moon and the folklore regarding it was a sign of a storm in the near future, or that is what my Dad used to say. I referenced the following website as proof:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonring/

Then I decided I would check with a real weather expert and contacted Gary Sadowski down at the Channel 3 News Weather Department. Below is his photo and response with a little insight on the weekend Nor Easter:

Hi Henry,

Sorry for not getting back to you before this - just been a little busy here the last couple of days.

Sure enough, there is some science to this! Just as it states in that web site, the ring - or halo - is created by moonlight passing through ice crystals in high, thin, cirrus clouds. And since warm fronts come in first at high altitudes, that is a pre-cursor to an approaching storm system. This is also true of the old saying, "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." Again, just before sunrise, if there are high thin clouds out ahead of a storm system, then the sunlight will be refracted so that the sky looks red. Then the clouds usually lower, and thicken, and stormy weather develops. So, sailors take warning!

And there are also sun halos and sun dogs, in addition to moon halos and moon dogs. Again, ice crystals in high, thin clouds are the culprit.

But they don't always mean that bad weather is approaching. That's why it's better to still stick with the scientific ways of forecasting - or at least in addition to the old sayings. I don't know if anyone else saw the moon halo the other day - I hadn't heard of any other reports. But obviously, we haven't had a big storm. Now . . . there IS a Nor'easter heading our way, but that storm is way, way too far away right now for any of the high clouds from it to cause any moon halos. And in fact, the storm hadn't even formed yet when that moon halo was reported.

Earlier that day, though, there were sun dogs! We saw them in the morning. So, that was a case when there were high, thin clouds, but it didn't mean that there was a storm coming.

And I don't agree with that part on the website where it says you can predict the number of days out the storm is by counting the number of stars within the moon halo. I had never heard of that before, and that just makes no sense to me at all. There could be dozens of visible stars within a ring, and there is no way that means a storm is on the way in a few dozen days!

And by the way, that big Nor'easter for this weekend is looking a little further out to sea now, according to the very latest data that just came in. There will still be some snow in southern New England, but probably nothing at all in the Champlain Valley. Seems like all the big storms are missing us this winter.

Well, I hope that answers your question. Thanks for e-mailing!
Gary Sadowsky

Gary is a great weatherman with his own unique way of forecasting the weather. He is on during the early morning and at noon, so most likely many of you don't get a chance to see him. If you would like to see a little biography of him, you can check it out at:

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=452861