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Weather forecasting, hillbilly-style
Posted By katie allison granju
Hillbilly Savants introduced me to an idea I’d never heard of before, an Appalachian tradition known as “Ruling Days:”
Here’s how it works.
According to the legend of Ruling Days, the weather on December 25th will be the predominant weather for the upcoming January. The weather on December 26th will indicate what kind of weather you will have in February. December 27th will forecast the weather for March. And, on it goes, until you get to the forecaster of the next December, which falls on Epiphany, aka January 6.
Trust me. The old folks in my neck of the woods swear by it. And, I, myself, have found it to be uncannily accurate.
I’m not an anthropologist, so I wouldn’t dare attempt to conjure a theory on how Ruling Days developed. I do know Southern Appalachia was settled by folks whom the European feudal system more or less rejected. And, so, some of the original settlers may have still had a bit of orthodoxy in them and they simply adapted it to their purposes.
Have you heard of this before? How did your own rural grandparents forecast the weather?
Dec 21st, 2007
I don’t know how my Grandparents did it other than “Margie”. But, I did have this really cute little weather rock that I used to use in my office. If the rock was wet, it was raining. If the rock was cold, it was cold. Pretty obvious, but still cute!
Margie…I haven’t thought about her in ages.