Wives' Tales About the Weather

Everyone's grandmother, great aunt and elderly neighbor has a way to predict the weather. Normally these wives' tales have nothing to do with science although there may very well be an element of truth in all of them. Still many set store by these weather wives' tales. Others of us watch to gage if there are any truth to them at all. All of us have fun with these tales. In that spirit I have collected a few from those in the know around me.

I really hate winter and cold and snow, so I am very interested in any way to predict just how much snow and cold I will have to endure this winter. That is why I like these two wives tales.

Everyone has heard the wives tale about the wooly woims. If they very fuzzy or wooly we will have a cold winter.

The same is often said about cattle or other live stock. If the cattle are heavy coated, it is going to be a hard winter.

A friend of mine insists that he can tell just how many snows we are going to have in our area every year. According to him the day of the month of the first snowfall will determine many times it will snow that year. This number includes flurries. So this year mark the day and count every day you see a flake.

The second wives; tale came from my great grandfather. Grandpa Striplin used to say that the weather of the first twelve days of the year would tell you what the weather was going to be like the rest of the year. If it rained all day on Jan 2, than Feb should be a very wet month. It it is sunny and warm on January 10m then look for an Indian summer in October. If the weather on January 12 is perfectly normal weather for January 12, then December's weather will be normal for December. Several times I have made the effort to write down the kind of weather we had on each of the first twelve days of January. Frankly it comes pretty close.

One of everyone's in my church favorite ladies tells us all that the winter will be cold or mild based on how thick the husks are on the years corn crop. She is often right.

I asked yet another lady in church about wives tales that predict the winter. She was raised in these Ozarks. One of the wives tales she has heard since she was a girl is about persimmons. One must get a seed from a persimmon, a wild fruit, Open it, and see what "picture" is inside the seed. If it is a spoon, there will be lots of snow to shovel. It there is a knife, there will be cutting winds.

I also enjoy the wives tales that predict rain or storms.

An older lady that used to go to my church would tell us that a strong thunderstorm was needed in the spring to "bust the leaves out."

Two other friends of mine insist that if the cows lay down in the field a front is coming through. My boss tells me that if those cows face east there will be rain.

Another common wives tale about rain in my area has to do with leaves. If when the wind blows the leaves turn upward, it is going to rain.

There were a couple of wives tales that I had never heard before which I found very interesting.

I was told by someone else in my church that if it thunders and lightenings in February, mark that day on the calendar. Then go to May and make the same day. That thunder and lightening in February means that there will be a frost on the very same day in May. I am going to watch for this one.

How true are these fun wives tales, you will have to watch and see for yourself. Have fun.