What Weather Will This Year Bring?
A new year is always ripe with possibilities. Though we have our own Almanac weather forecasts, we also enjoy the tradition of looking to weather folklore. Enjoy this New Year’s lore and see if it rings true!
New Year’s Weather Folklore
In particular, weather folklore often looks to the wind. Try this. Step outside as the sun sets on New Year’s Eve. Feel the wind and recite:
If New Year’s Eve the wind blows south
It betokens warmth and growth.
If west, much milk and fish in the sea.
If north, cold and storms there will be.
If east, the trees will bear much fruit.
If north east, then flee it, man and brute.
Then throw your new year wishes to the wind!
Others believed the time to check out the wind was at sunrise on New Year’s Day, but if you had any fun the night before, it will be hard to wake up at dawn.
(If you forgot to check the wind, don’t worry.)
First 12 Days of January
Other lore says that the first 12 days of the year are just as useful: The first 12 days of January foretell the weather for each month of the year.
So, the weather on the first, good or bad, will reflect how January will feel. The second day forecasts February, the third forecasts March, and so on.
You may have also heard: If there is thunder in January, it will snow 7 days later. And fog in January brings a wet spring.
Forecasting by the Onion
My favorite is the onion story: Get twelve onions. Between 11:00pm and midnight on New Year’s Eve, cut off the tops and scoop out a depression in the centers.
Get out your compass and line the onions in an east-west orientation. Place an equal amount of salt in each depression. (Then explain to your fellow partiers why you smell like an onion!)
If all else fails, check the onions!
Don’t look at the vegetables until the next morning. The salt has dissolved to varying degrees in each onion. The more water in each onion, the wetter the corresponding month will be in the coming year. After this, carefully add potatoes and other root veggies, rub with olive oil and spices and bake.
Whether the onions are right or wrong, you’ll have a nice New Year’s Day feast of roasted veggies.
But Do They Really Work?
Oddly enough, the majority of weather superstitions cited here do have a scientific basis in fact. But that doesn’t mean that their accuracy rates are much to boast about. Then again, had they not worked to some degree at some point, they might not have been repeated and remembered for all these years!
Of course, you can also check this year’s Almanac forecast as a “human” point of reference. See two months of our long-range forecasts—or pick up a copy of The 2022 Old Farmer’s Almanac for more!
More Weather Folklore
Want more weather folklore? Check out…
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I think a lot of the accuracy of weather lore depends on *where* such sayings originated. For instance, the old "red sky at morning" poem was fairly accurate when I lived in New England, but doesn't mean much down South, where red clay in the soil means almost ALL sunrises and sunsets produce a red sky. ;D
My ex-husband was in the Navy and said when they were at sea they dreaded a red sky at morning because ("Red sky in the morning, people take warning".) because that meant they would be encountering some stormy seas. (His ship's captain received the equivalent of a court martial because he endangered the ship and its' crew; what was left of the flag of the USS Trenton, LPD-14, was displayed on the ship aftewards; at least a third of it had been shredded and blown away in the storm that led to the man's court martial.
What about if there's no wind eve or day?
Good question! Unfortunately, the above weather lore does not address that scenario. However, there is another proverb that says (for any date) “No weather is ill, / If the wind be still.”
Hi there! I'm doing research on the ruling days for my own personal benefit. I grew up hearing about them and how they predicted the weather for the upcoming year, but never paid enough attention and now wish I had. Do you have information on the Ruling Days? I believe they may have originated in Scotland but I always heard them linked to Appalachia. I'd love to hear anything you have to say on the subject.
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