Based on the weather forcasts this morning I had expected a good storm coming in from the coast today.  The morning began with a thick mound of clouds and a purple sunrise hinting at the storms possibility. By mid afternoon the sky was back to its normal, brillliant blue and not a wisp of a cloud anywhere. For those of us who live in the Desert Southwest, blue skys are the norm and rain is often a rare treat.

The dinner dishes had long been put away and my eyelids were getting heavy when I begin to hear my Grace Note Stardust chimes playing a soft melody on the back porch. Gently at first as my other chimes also started taking notice of the restless air. The increasing tempo of the wind-chime symphony finally arrested my attention. Suddenly, a flash of light through the slats of the window blinds told me that my forgotten storm had not forgotten its scheduled appointment.

As I have mentioned on our Education page, well before weather forecasting was developed farmers and sailors were able to make short-term weather predictions with the help of their general knowledge about local weather, and observations of wind speed and direction. Wind chimes were used to determine the direction of wind. The rate at which the striker hit the tubes was used to calculate wind speed.

I think the weather forcasting ability of the ancients has been passed along just fine. The storm I had given up on...my wind chimes had not.