Scientists from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Institute of Agricultural and Forest Environment of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Life Sciences in Poznań examined the proverbial verifiability in comparison to meteorological data.
Proverbs about the weather for hundreds of years gave clues suggesting what weather to expect. To date, proverbs suggest when to expect frost, humidity or drought. In the research described in the American journal Weather, Climate and Society, the Poznan scientists analyzed 28 proverbs and measuring data from the last 60 years from 20 meteorological stations from Poland and neighboring countries.
The analysis shows that the veracity of most proverbs is quite small and decreases over the years. Researchers have also found that veracity is bigger in the measuring stations located northeast. The best were records from stations in Minsk (Belarus), Suwałki (Poland) and Vilnius (Lithuania) .
