If Candlemas be bright and clear,
There’ll be two winters in the year;
If Candlemas brings snow and rain
Old winter shall not come again.
There’ll be two winters in the year;
If Candlemas brings snow and rain
Old winter shall not come again.
__
Candlemas (Imbolc) is the pivot point between the shortest day and the Spring equinox. The weather prophesies that we still mark as Groundhog Day go back to a time in Northern Europe when that pivot was an indicator of a farm household’s chance of surviving, well or meagrely, until the Spring. This year in New England there hasn’t been much of a winter so far (apart from the Halloween Horrorshow), but nobody’s putting away the snowblowers or shovels before Easter in any case!
Raven
I was talking to a buddy with a nursery business yesterday and he said “there is a big hammer out there ready to fall on us”.
Davis X. Machina
You should have half your firewood and half your hay left.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven:
Please FSM, let it wait until next Wednesday. After that I don’t care.
Raven
Here’s my groundhog movie complete with the song by Spirit! Sorry for the shaky cam but it’s worth it to watch the Bodhi lunge at the critter at about 2:38.
Cermet
Is this an AGW thread and will the
ratstrolls come out to play?Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Well, we’re of for our morning hike and it’s 55!
Schlemizel
Well its cloudy this morning but thats supposed to clear later. Does that mean 3 more weeks of the winter we have not even had one week of yet this season?
amk
Endangered species in FL.
amk
obama’s populist message.
Willard
So when does winter start? More days where I could BBQ on my deck than days of snow showers. Very unusual
Platonicspoof
I hope the Feb. 1 Rachel Maddow program about the origin of self-deportation has already been recommended in previous comment sections.
When the reductio ad absurdum mockery precedes* the proposed idea, it feels like the universe is running in reverse.
*Romney’s team has to have come up with the idea on their own. They can’t possibly have gone 16 years without understanding the joke.
They can’t.
Unless he really is a bot.
HeartlandLiberal
Here in South Central Indiana, it is hard to say there has been a winter at all. We had a period of 7 – 10 days when temperatures dropped, actually getting into the low teens a couple of time, in early January, and we had a couple of dustings of snow.
For the past 3 – 4 days? As February starts? Daytime temps in the upper 50’s, even yesterday into the 60’s.
Last night we just left the geothermal unit turned off completely. The house is so well insulated that, despite the outdoor weather station claiming it got down to 32, inside the house the temp hung steady at 63 all night.
Winter? What winter? We plan to visit relatives down in central Alabama later this year. I am going to get some pecan tree plantings from them, bring them back, and grow Southern Pecans right here in South Central Indiana.
FridayNext
Here in Florida we never have winter. Fall slides tediously into Spring. I hate Florida.
And since I am already in a curmudgeonly mood, it isn’t a “pivot point” it’s called a cross-quarter day, halfway between a solstice and an equinox.
CarolDuhart2
57 today, 56 tomorrow. What winter? When does it start? I’ve only had to wear my long johns 2 weeks this year. I put plastic on my windows 2 weeks ago, and haven’t needed them since. Right now it’s 41, and that’s only because it’s dark and partly cloudy. When the Sun rises it might be 50.
Linda Featheringill
@amk:
Cute. :-)
Steeplejack (phone)
@Anne Laurie:
Typo alert: think you want prophecies (noun) instead of prophesies (verb).
kdaug
80F in Austin yesterday. In fucking February.
We hit 112F last summer.
Can’t wait to see what we have in store this round.
Egg Berry
@kdaug: Snow in July.
Raven
@HeartlandLiberal: It’s been a bad year for pecans to the point that people have been stealing them like mad because they are so pricy.
Montysano
I was traveling in the Black Belt region of Alabama earlier this week. Tulip magnolias in full bloom. In late January. Absolutely gorgeous weather, but I’m pretty sure we’ll pay for it this summer.
JPL
@Raven: Before the xmas holidays I bought a pound for thirteen dollars from an organic farmer. Of course, I was going to use them for baking but I ate them instead. They were so good.
imonlylurking
Is anybody else drooling over garden catalogs and websites yet?
Here in Minneapolis, we’re having what is more like an extended fall (complete with drought) than anything resembling winter.
Of course, it has been known to snow in May.
I’m still eagerly planning garden stuff-my place of employment has a garden that we use to donate to the local food shelf. Last year we got a late start because of the snow. This year?
We’ll be planting spring crops in March, if I have my way. (and I will!)
*cracks knuckles*
R-Jud
Bright and cold here in Olde England– my garden thermometer has yet to crack 30 today. The roofers working on our house are flying through their job, probably because I keep sending them pots of tea. We expect the snow to (finally!) fall on Friday and Saturday.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
One year ago this week the Dallas area saw so much ice that schools shut down for a week. All of you might remember the fun around the Superbowl here.
This year, since the beginning of winter, we’ve crossed below freezing early in the morning about 5 times, our lowest high has been about 45, and we’re having the a top ten wettest winter.
Don K
Here in SE MI, we’ve had a couple of small snows (2-3″), but that’s it. So far things have stayed warm enough that the protection for the rhododendrons has been superfluous. But, as any Michigander will tell you, the danger time for ice storms that will leave the power off for several days is coming up.
Oh, and doing a quick issue-to-issue on the USDA hardiness zone maps, where previously SE Oakland County was borderline zone 5-6, we’re now solidly in zone 6a, which now extends north to Bay City and Midland and inland as far as Jackson and almost to Lansing.
Poopyman
The guys who called the 2010 Snowmegeddon(s) are saying not to put your snow shovels away.
(Yeah, about 6 hours too late. It so happens I had actual work to do today.)
Chuck Butcher
Around here we’ll know what kind of winter we’re going to have in June. This year’s snowfall is bad news. Skiing is one thing, but we depend on the winter and spring snow fall to provide water for the mountains’ health and downstream irrigation. The 10,000 people in Baker City use that mountain spring water for drinking, laundry, watering the yard… The Powder River is supplied by the same and is used for diversion ditches and pumping. The wells tap aquifers that are fed by the same sources. The trees in the mountains drink that water all year. This is not good.
It better get wet/snowy real soon.
Chet
All I hear from the Godless Librul Media is stuff about groundhogs.
It’s a WAR ON CANDLEMAS, people!
Not Sure
This time last year we were up to our eyeballs in snow. This year, nothing but brown grass. We’ve had warm and wet punctuated by short periods of dry and cold (but not all that cold). We’ve been below zero in central New York just one night. One.
And now the USDA tells me we’re in hardiness zone 5b. We were in 4b in 1990. I can have a peach tree in my yard now. Isn’t that something? New York peaches. Didn’t know there could be such a thing, and I just ordered a tree online the other day. They can now grow cabernet-sauvingnon in the Finger Lakes. Yes, it’s that warm there now.