Today's Ember Prediction - February 2012

On 14 December I posted the Old Farmer's Almanac information and other fun tidbits for this month. If you read it, you may recall that I described the Ember Days that come up four times a year, predicated on specific Roman Catholic holy days. Today is the second Ember Day in December, and by folklore, determines the overall weather in February.

Here is a reminder of the Ember Days and how they work:

Ember Days: The four periods formerly observed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches for prayer, fasting, and the ordination of clergy are called Ember Days. Specifically, these are the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays the follow in succession following (1) the First Sunday in Lent; (2) Whitsunday - Pentecost; (3) the Feast of the Holy Cross, September 14; and (4) the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13. The word ember is perhaps a corruption of the Latin quatuor tempora, "four times."

Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for the nest three months; that is, September's Ember Days, Wednesday forecast is for October, Friday for November, and Saturday for December.

So, for February 2012, here is the weather we had on Friday:

It dawned sunny and was unusually warm - around 64°F - and around early afternoon it got cloudy. So maybe February will not be too bad (fat chance, but who knows...).

The next Ember Day is tomorrow, Saturday, 17 December, the final Ember Day for 2011 until March, when that set will determine April, May and June.

Weather is fun!