The Weather Vane

High above the building in many parts of the world, a weather vane tells which way the wind blows. Usually above the arrow itself, the vane has a symbolic figure of some kind – and more often than not it is a cockerel. But whether the vane has a cockerel or other figure surveying all, the device is frequently referred to as a weather cock.

According to St Mark’s gospel, when Jesus sat with his disciples at the last supper. He said to Peter: Verily I say unto three, that this day even in this night, before the cock crow twice thoushalt deny me thrice. In the ninth century, to commemorate this prediction Pope Nicholas I ordered that the cockerel should surmount the highest steeple or pinnacle of every cathedral, abbey and church in Christendom. Weather vanes were already in use so, to give the cockerel a place higher than anything else, the figure was mounted above the vane.

From the earliest times, it was known that a wind from a certain direction usually brought a particular kind of weather Wind indicators were installed more as a means of predicting the weather than to indicate merely shift’s in the wind.