Wisconsin Idea Project Links Weather, Culture and Storytelling

MADISON - We’ve all encountered them. From early childhood, when we learn about old men snoring and the inevitability of rain falling into each of our lives, we have adopted notions and perspectives of the weather—and life—based on proverbs, rhymes, stories, legends, folk beliefs, sayings and omens.

From making hay while the sun shines (or putting something somewhere it doesn’t) to overcoming hell or high water and dodging downpours of cats and dogs, the pervasive nature of weather in everyday discourse is inescapable. To be greeted (Hot enough for you?), is to be confronted by the obvious in a manner intended to draw out conversation.

And while people talk about the weather in all kinds of ways, rarely do they reflect on the sayings and stories that often have far deeper meaning or are drawn from very real events. Even more unusual is any effort to forge links between folklore, artful storytelling and our scientific understanding of weather.

Now, however, a new project funded by the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment seeks to do just that. The project, a collaboration of researchers and educators from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, the UW-Madison Folklore Program and the Wisconsin Arts Board, is bringing together UW-Madison students and Wisconsin K-12 teachers and students to explore weather lore and sayings, and to connect them to scientific explanations of the weather.
 

Date Posted: September 9, 2003
Contact: Anne Pryor, 608/266-8106