Filed under: history, Minnesota, weather, weather wisdom | Tags: history, Minnesota, moon, weather, weather forecast, weather wisdom
Some of you have heard the discussion of the moon being closer than it has been for 18 years and what this may mean for us. My dad and I were discussing my previous post and the forecast for the summer. He mentioned that 18 years ago we had a cool wet summer, and that it had also been cold and wet 38 years ago when the moon was at its closest. Does the moon affect our weather?
We know that the tides of the ocean respond to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. Higher tides are found as the moon gets closer, or when it lines up with the sun. Is it too much of a stretch to think that the water vapor in our air may also respond to the moon?
Our weather across the world is affected by the movement of our oceans waters. The well documented El Nino and La Nina changes in the Pacific show this to be true. How much are these affected by the moon?
Ancient people who did not have all of our science claimed the effect of the sun and moon on many things. One of the things that they may have been right on could be the weather. I’ve seen the wisdom of older people to be true too often to discount it. Either way, it makes for an interesting discussion.
Filed under: Fall, Minnesota, seasons, spring, summer, weather, weather wisdom, wind, winter | Tags: fall, farm, Minnesota, spring, summer, weather, weather forecast, winter
Leo, our local weather forecaster has called in his prediction for the years weather, and it’s going to be interesting. He’s usually pretty accurate, so I always listen. He’s vague enough to be able to hedge his bets, but always better than the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Leo has two methods he uses to predict the weather.
The onions.
On New Years Eve Leo cuts onions in half, hollows them out, adds a teaspoon of salt to each and puts them near a basement window. On New Years Day he reads the rainfall prediction by the amount of water in each onion. For this year he is projecting average rainfall for all months except May, August and December. These months will have below average rainfall.
Ember Days.
Ember days start on the first full day of spring. Leo keeps track of the weather for the first four full days of spring and uses those days to predict the areas weather. He claims the system has been used since before the Europeans came here. Here’s the forecast:
- Spring will have below normal temperatures. Leo expects a cool damp spring.
- Summer will also have below normal temperatures with early summer storms. It’s going to be windy so a few storms could mix in. This was the day that Iowa had lots of tornados and areas north of us were buried in snow, so we could get a little of crazy weather around us. Leo expects this to be a year that you should have crop insurance.
- Fall will be cold with some early snow. Later in the fall we could see some rain, but expect some wind, not a lot, all season long.
- Winter should be the best of all the seasons. Leo expects little snow and not much wind. We could have a decent winter ahead.
These forecasts are very place specific. If your area weather was different from ours, you can expect to have different weather. If he is right or not, it’s still fun to listen. My past experience is that it’s alway worth listening to Leo’s weather forecast for the year.
