People have had weather folklore going back to at least the Bible (remember “Red sky at night?”).  Here are a couple of stories about Indian summer and other weather sayings.

Indian summer article from TheEagle.com

Weather, as told by nature from DiscoverNatureNotes.com

Farmers are particularly good at phenology, the study of weather and climate by observing changes in the natural world, because they spend a lot of time outside attuned to changes going on in the environment around them.  In recent years phenology has provided key evidence that changes are occurring in local climates because observed dates on which key events occur (first leaf on tree, migration of birds, etc) are changing in response to warmer temperatures.