(no subject)

[white_hart]

I’m pleased to see that Sky Movies Comedy is showing Groundhog Day today. Nothing but Groundhog Day, on a loop.

We’re warching Midsomer Murders, though.

If there had been a groundhog in Oxford today it would definitely have been able to see its shadow; it was bright and sunny enough that my solar-powered fairy lights actually came on. (Solar-powered fairy lights turn out not to be a great idea, as there’s rarely enough sunlight at the time of year when you want fairy lights to cheer you up.) I don’t know whether groundhog-based superstitions have much bearing on the weather in a groundhog-free country, though.

Comments

[strange_complex]

A lack of groundhogs isn't a problem, as this is also Candlemas and that comes with essentially the same weather-related tradition:

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain,
Winter will not come again.

[white_hart]

Ah, I knew it was Candlemas but didn’t know that had the same tradition. Well, it was definitely fair and bright (and cold)!

[strange_complex]

To be fair, neither did I until I saw someone mentioning it this morning! The UK weather tradition that I actually remember being told about as a child (by my mother) is that whatever the weather is like on St Swithin's Day, it'll stay the same for the next 40 days.

[white_hart]

Yes, I’ve always known about the St Swithin’s Day one.

[perennialanna]

You couldn't miss knowing about St Swithin where I grew up - it was the local private school for girls that quite a few of my classmates went on to after the village primary.

Norwich was cold but cloudy and intermittently rainy, verging on sleet.

[mrs_redboots]

I went there in the 1960s. But I don't remember how, or whether, we celebrated the eponymous saint!

[cosmolinguist]

I read today that even in the country the groundhog is from, he's apparently only right 33% of the time, so he couldn't be much worse here. :)

[white_hart]

Well, I'm generally not convinced that "what the weather is like today" is really going to be a good predictor of the weather for the next six weeks!

[nineveh_uk]

If they just switched round what the prediction meant, he could be right 67% of the time!

[mrs_redboots]

I read somewhere that there are various days during the year when the weather may be expected to follow a given pattern, which is how the superstitions arise - Candlemas, for instance, and St Swithun's day....

[white_hart]

I think there's probably something about dominant weather systems there, but probably a lot more of people remembering the times when the weather on X day did persist, more or less, for the next month or so, and not remembering the times when it didn't!