Weather Untamed - Episode 1 - When Pigs Fly

Through charts and chants, spleens and sayings, Canadians struggle to sniff out the forecast. Meet predictors and predictions as eccentric as the weather they foresee.

The Weather Sniffer - For 30 years, Lauchie McDougall was Newfoundland's "Gale Sniffer Extraordinaire".

The Saxby Gale - Lieutenant Saxby of the Royal Navy used tides and moon phases to predict a hurricane-force storm a year prior to the event.

St Swithin's Flood - Folklore has it that rain on Saint Swithin's day, July 15, promises rain for the next 40 days. A shower in Quebec's Saguenay region on July 15, 1996 is followed by a two-day deluge producing the equivalent of 2 months' flow of water over Niagara Falls. "Saint Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain, for forty days it will remain. Saint Swithin's Day, if thou be fair, for forty days ’twill rain na maire."

Pig Spleen Predictions - Gus Wickstrom uses pig spleens to predict weather with, he claims, 98.5% accuracy. Gus demonstrates his forecasting techniques and squares off with Environment Canada's weather guru David Phillips.

Pigs Flying - A tornado rips through Watrous, Saskatchewan, destroying a large barn and scattering pigs to the winds.