> Scudding. That's an interesting word. It's a pity, but only clouds are allowed to go scudding. Authors like to say things like, "The next morning the surf was up and there were scudding clouds crossing the sky."
>
> Scudding clouds are low clouds that move rather quickly. That's bad news for sailors, so you know the author is planning to send some of his characters to sea at a time when they should have stayed ashore.
>
> If you check your dictionary, you may find that scudding is a step in preparing hides for tanning, but I don't want to go into that. Cloud scudding is much more interesting.
>
> As always, I wonder about the origin of the term.
> It probably goes back to British sailors in the time when the England ruled the seas. But could there be other uses for the term? How about sledders scudding down a hill in the snow? Or traffic scudding on the Interstate? Or maybe war planes scudding in on a bombing run?
>
> Maybe someday we'll all know how to scud like those lucky clouds.
> Howard

My dictionary defines "to scud" as:
1. To run or skim along swiftly and easily: dark clouds scudding by.
2. Nautical. To run before a gale with little or no sail set.

So, the defining feature of scudding is being unpowered and driven by the wind.

winter"Makes sense to me"mute