Benedictus Deus

As you probably know this was the Lenten Embertide which reminded me that we have not reviewed the Ember day weather predictions in a while.  From the Advent Embertide I had these notes:

Wed (January) Clear, a little colder than seasonable, breezy

Friday (February) Cold (more so than seasonable) and cloudy

Saturday (March) Cold and heavy snow and high winds

I don’t specifically remember the weather from January, but I remember thinking at one point the Ember prediction was pretty much on target except for a brief warmup in there somewhere.  February has definitely been much colder than average.  There have only been a couple days this month that reached the average high.  Most have been well below.  It has also been very cloudy but we have also had a lot of precipitation which was not predicted.  Overall, I think the Ember predictions were pretty solid this time.  That one for march was on a day when we had a near record snow fall here in South Jersey so I kind of doubt that one will prove accurate.

The Lenten Embertide predicts the weather for April-June.  Here is what I have:

Wednesday (April) Cloudy, mild, seasonable temperature, precipitation late.

Friday (May) A little cooler than average, windy early with precipitation, clearing late.

Saturday (June) Mostly sunny, seasonable temperatures.

Also in February there are two other weather predictors.  Candlemas (which morphed into groundhogs day in America).  Basically if the weather is good on Candlemas, that means more harsh winter weather.  If the weather is bad, then spring will come early.  This year the weather was nice (and the groundhog saw his shadow) which means more winter, which we have been getting in abundance around here.

The other, I just learned about, is a St. Matthias prediction.  There is a slavic saying that goes something like this: “When St. Matthias comes if he finds ice he must break it, if not he must make it.”  So, basically the same idea as Candlemas.  Around here our snow was almost all melted on St. Matthias’ day, but the next day (and the day after) we got plenty more.  So I guess that one was instantly fulfilled.