November: Weather Predictions

We tend to be a little anxious at the beginning of November, trying to read into all things a sign of what portends for the coming winter.

We're not alone. For centuries people have been trying to divine the same thing. From the book Weather Lore: a Collection of Proverbs, Sayings and Rules Concerning the Weather, compiled by Richard Inwards in 1898, comes this list of things to watch for on November 1, All Saints Day, and throughout the month:

• Ice in November brings mud in December.
• Thunder in November, a fertile year to come. (I heard thunder this evening). Thunder in November on the Northern lakes is taken as an indication that the lakes will remain open till at least the middle of December. 
• As November, so the following March.
• On the 1st of November, if the weather hold clear, an end of wheat sowing do make for the year
• In Sweden there is often about this time some warm weather, called " The All Saints' Rest."
• Farewell, thou latter spring; farewell, thou All Hallow'n Halltwmai summer.—Shakespeare (Prince Henry to Falstaff, i Henry W"' 1*)• IV, i. a).
• If All Saints' Day will bring out the winter, St. Martin's Day will bring out Indian summer.—United States.
• If on All Saints' Day the beech nut be found dry, we shall have a hard winter; but if the nut be wet and not light, we may expect a wet winter.
• If this day be fair, the next winter will bring but little rain and snow along with it; but if the first half of the day be clear and the other cloudy, the beginning of winter will accordingly be fair, but its end and spring will turn out rigorous and disagreeable.

Friends in southwestern Virginia reported a rainbow tonight when snow was falling. I have never seen that, although I have seen thundersnow. I've been searching online to see what predictions might be made about seeing a rainbow when it's snowing but have found nothing. Can anyone contribute information on this?

If you really want to know what's coming, I suppose the best source is still the Old Farmer's Almanac, which already has the 2011 edition out for sale. (I've found that my old injuries are pretty accurate too, for at least the coming day.)

Snow is predicted here tomorrow, and that seems most strange to me, to be looking for snow so early on. Another old saying is that the date of the first measurable snow is the number of snowfalls we will have this year. So tomorrow is November 5th. Will that mean we will only see 5 snows this winter?

I know a lot of people who will be happy if that is the case!



More about November weather:

 

"So dull and dark are the November days.
The lazy mist high up the evening curled,
And now the morn quite hides in smoke and haze;
The place we occupy seems all the world."
-   John Clare, November

And finally, two poems about November by a husband and his wife seem perfect for another rainy November evening:

November  

by Richard Henry Stoddard, 1825-1903

The wild November comes at last

Beneath a veil of rain;

The night winds blows its folds aside,

Her face is full of pain.

The latest of her race, she takes

The Autumn's vacant throne:

She has but one short moon to live,

And she must live alone.

 November

by Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, 1823-1902

Much have I spoken of the faded leaf;

Long have I listened to the wailing wind,

And watched it ploughing through the heavy clouds,

For autumn charms my melancholy mind.

When autumn comes, the poets sing a dirge:

The year must perish; all the flowers are dead;

The sheaves are gathered; and the mottled quail

Runs in the stubble, but the lark has fled!

Still, autumn ushers in the Christmas cheer,

The holly-berries and the ivy-tree:

They weave a chaplet for the Old Year's bier,

These waiting mourners do not sing for me!

I find sweet peace in depths of autumn woods,

Where grow the ragged ferns and roughened moss;

The naked, silent trees have taught me this,

The loss of beauty is not always loss!