By GERALD S. HAWKINS

By GERALD S. HAWKINS

Rappahannock News Contributing Writer

The weather in Rappahannock County is not quite the same as anywhere else. It has something to do with the Blue Ridge Mountains, the gaps, the hollows, the forests and the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

In England, where I grew up, the old saying goes:

“Red sky at night,

Shepherd’s delight.”

There still are shepherds with their flocks on the Pennine hills, and what they mean is that a red sky indicates dry, calm, dusty air to the west (the Atlantic), and no storm will blow in for the next day or two.

But here in Rappahannock you can get a red sky even when there is a storm on the way. The clouds gather over the mountains, and red sunlight glints underneath. »• A ring around the moon is equally misleading. It does not nec* essarily foretell bad weather for Rappahannock. The ring is caused » by ice particles in the clouds, reflecti ing colors like the crystal in a chandelier. In England, a ring around the ^ moon shows how a warm front is ® sneaking across the sky, but in Rappahannock it might only be a cool mountain cloud floating over the hol“' lows, going nowhere.

I listen to Rappahannock i weather lore, because there is a lot of solid experience behind it. Take the saying: “Northeast winds bring gullywashers.” That is very true — ignore the words at your peril. A deep coastal storm blows moist air from the Atlantic over Philadelphia, and after it hits the Blue Ridge somewhere near Front Royal, all the water seems to drop out onto Rappahannock. The heavy rains gouge out gullies, and these left to their own devices become what Virginians call branches and runs.

Long ago the American Indians called this spot the “land of fastflowing water” — they must have known all about the gullywasher!

I have heard people talk about