Merrilee Ritter, age 11, of Roc ester, New York, for the question:

What started weather proverbs?

Farmers and. shepherds are grout ones for watching the skies. Weather is important to them and they want to knew what is ahead. Before the days of scientific weather forecasting men tried to guess what weather was in store for them. And. a good way to make a guess is to notice what has happened before.

Shepherds noticed that a fine day often came after a red sunset. So they say red at night is the shepherd's delight. Our prevailing winds are the westerlies and most of our weather comes from the west. Heavy clouds in the western sky light up with vivid colors from the setting sun. During the night these clouds may pass overhead, leaving a clear, cloudless sky in the morning.

So this proverb is often a good guess. But the weatherman does not oven take it into account. He bases his forecast on countless known facts about the atmosphere.