What does the rural saying "It doesn't rain in beginning of autumn, and there are twenty-four autumn tigers" mean?

It doesn't rain in early autumn. Twenty-four autumn tigers mean that if it doesn't rain in beginning of autumn that day, it will be hot for 24 days in the future and it will be cool in autumn. Autumn tiger means that the weather in autumn is as hot as a tiger, so autumn tiger means hot autumn.

Proverbs handed down in rural areas to this day are all summed up by the older generation based on years of life and work experience, especially proverbs about solar terms, which are much more accurate than weather forecasts. Many people think that rural proverbs are just the experience of old people and have no scientific basis. Actually, it's not. As far as the proverb "It doesn't rain in beginning of autumn, there are twenty-four autumn tigers" is concerned, this proverb still has scientific basis.

We often say that there is autumn rain and cold rain, and it doesn't rain in beginning of autumn. Rainfall will greatly reduce the temperature, but after it rains in summer, the temperature will rise in a short time due to the strong sunshine. After beginning of autumn, it is very different from summer rainfall, because after beginning of autumn, the sunshine will become weaker and weaker. Although the temperature will rise after rain, the increase is very small, so as long as it rains, the weather will become more and more after beginning of autumn.

In fact, the twenty-four autumn tigers in this proverb don't mean that it doesn't rain in beginning of autumn, but that it will be very hot in the next twenty-four days, which is a general term. In fact, rural proverbs pay attention to rhyme, and at the same time, they will use slightly exaggerated descriptions to make people firmly remember this proverb. China's north-south span is relatively large, and there are many temperature differences. The proverb "It doesn't rain in beginning of autumn, but there are twenty-four autumn tigers" doesn't apply to all parts of our country. Personally, I think this proverb is more suitable for most southern regions, because many northern regions come in autumn much faster than southern regions.