Winter Weather Lore

03 Dec Winter Weather Lore

After a mild November, the weather seems to be taking a turn for the colder in December – something which many people might have predicted without the help of the weatherman, as it’s one of the common superstitions surrounding winter and its weather.

As it is the coldest and harshest season, there have always been attempts to predict winter weather – once upon a time, after all, being able to predict a long, cold winter could have meant the difference between life and death. Whilst predicting the weather is today more of a job for meteorologists than psychics, it is no doubt a fascinating subject, and many of these superstitions do have their basis in fact!

Amongst the many things that people have, at one time or another, looked out for to predict a long cold winter we find:

• Fat rabbits in October or November
• The colour of the first calf born that season (white meaning a bad winter ahead)
• Sheep gnashing their teeth during the autumn round-up
• Thunder in autumn
• Flowers blooming in autumn

Of course, one aspect of winter that many of us look forward to – in the right amounts – is snowfall, and there are just as many superstitions about how to predict whether or not we’ll get any of the lovely white stuff, including:

• For every fog in August, there will be snow in winter
• Squirrels gathering nuts in a hurry forecasts a big snow flurry!
• A halo around the moon means it will snow soon

Equally, certain signs during the winter can foretell the weather of the year to come – no snow at Christmas is sometimes said to forecast snow at Easter. This may sound unlikely, but Easter can fall quite early and according to the Met Office, it’s actually more likely to snow at Easter than it is at Christmas.

As the weather grows colder and the nights grow longer, it’s quite natural to find your thoughts turning to introspection, thinking about the year that has almost passed and towards the year to come.

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