Updated August 31, 2012 – 7:49am
According to folklore, “For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall.”
Fogs in August (to date):
August 1 – Heavy Fog
August 2 – Moderate Fog
August 3 – Light Fog
August 4 – No Fog
August 5 – Light Fog
August 6 – Light Fog
August 7 – Heavy Fog
August 8 – Moderate Fog
August 9 – Moderate to Heavy Fog
August 10 – Heavy Fog
August 11 – Heavy Fog
August 12 – Light Fog
August 13 – Moderate Fog
August 14 – Spotty/Moderate Fog
August 15 – Moderate Fog
August 16 – Heaviest Fog in three years!
August 17 – Light / Spotty Fog
August 18 – Moderate Fog
August 19 – Moderate Fog
August 20 – Light Fog
August 21 – Moderate to Heavy Patchy Fog
August 22 – Moderate Fog
August 23 – Heavier than August 16th!
August 24 – Heaviest, most widespread fog of August
August 25 – Moderate to heavy fog
August 26 – Light to moderate fog
August 27 – Light fog – spotty
August 28 – No Fog
August 29 – Light to Moderate
August 30 – Light to Moderate and patchy
August 31 – Moderate to heavy fog
The first full week of August is NOW behind us and snow lovers may want to put some "stock" into this little bit of folklore:
"If the first week in August is unusually warm, the coming winter will be snowy and long.”
The highs so far this month were 2 to 5 degrees warmer than average for this time of year on FOUR of the first SEVEN days of the month. The overnight lows for this first week of August have been considerably warmer than average as average lows for this time of year are in the 57° range. It has been 1-5° warmer than that on SIX of SEVEN days.
More to come…
(Now back to the original post)
Obviously that bit of lore went out the window during the winter of 2011-2012. I should have known it was going to be a mild winter when I don’t think I had to rake up ONE acorn from my yard last Autumn.
More August folklore includes:
“If a cold August follows a hot July, it foretells a winter hard and dry.”
Hmmmm…
I guess it is safe to say that July was indeed warmer than usual around these parts. We’ll take the "hard winter" but hopefully it won’t be a dry one.
Looking ahead at the "first week of August" forecast, the highs are expected to be in the mid 70s to around 82° which IS about 5-6° warmer than average. Lows are forecasted to be around 60° which is about 5° warmer than average. If that bit of lore comes to fruition we could be in for a snowy and long winter.
I like that one! 😉
I was reading the Bible this morning (which I usually do each morning) and coincidentally I came upon the part where Jesus was blasting some people who were not seeing the signs of things to come. He admonished those who were listening, "Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time?"
He was obviously alluding to being able to discern the near immediate weather by understanding the signs provided them in nature. That was some 2000 years ago and I’m pretty certain that was before weather.com (or ANY dot com for that matter).
While many of us in the 21st century may think weather lore is more whimsical that wise, it’s hard to discount all of these “natural forecasters,” especially when they prove to be true.
While not all weather lore is accurate, there are many sayings that prove to be on the mark time and time again. When you examine weather lore, you realize that the basics of this weather predicting method are careful observations that have been made over many years. Weather lore relies on the notion that there is a strong cause-and-effect relationship between nature and the weather.
As we move deeper into August, September and begin to see some leaves turning (and acorns falling) we’ll no doubt begin to receive short and long terms winter forecasts from the NWS, the Old Farmer’s Almanac and others. We’ll toss in some Ray Russell commentaries as well as the forecasts of the woolly worm and any other critter that will talk to us – especially if they forecast deep snows and cold temps.
More to come – stay tuned as we update the foggy mornings each morning in August.
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