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 Police in New Hampshire have issued an "arrest warrant"
for Punxsutawney Phil, citing his failure to disclose that six more
weeks of winter "would consist of mountains of snow."
Merrimack police uploaded a humorous post to its Facebook page that
it was issuing a "warrant" for Phil, the groundhog who saw his
shadow last Monday and "forecasted" six more weeks of winter.
"We have received
several complaints from the public that this little varmint is held
up in a hole, warm and toasty," reads the department's post, which
has received nearly 2,000 "likes" and has been shared more than
3,400 times.
Meanwhile, a police department in Harlan, Kentucky blamed Queen Elsa
of Arendelle for a week of extremely cold temperatures, posting an
arrest warrant for her on their Facebook page.
Weather facts and folklore:
Farmers, however, may appreciate the snowy weather, since some
weather adages assert that snow may be a predictor of a bountiful
harvest. Granny Miller’s Journal relates some of these proverbs:
Year of snow, fruit
will grow.
A year of snow, crops will grow.
A year of snow, a year of plenty.
“If gnats dance in
February,
the farmer becomes a beggar”. . . but
“If February give much snow,
A fine summer it doth foreshow.”
Normal season transitions tend to affirm that
"March comes in like a lion and goes out
like a lamb." The cold and snow of the first week of this
year's March has many hoping that the adage will bring a lamb-like
closure to the month.
As spring begins, some other proverbs from the Garden Digest that
may ring true:
A dry March and
a wet May
Fill barns and bays with corn and hay.
So many mists in March, so many frosts in May.
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 If years past are any indication, the coming of spring may bring
with it rainy weather. Proverbs concerning such weather include
these two adages:
Rain before seven
quits before eleven.
If it rains on
Easter Sunday, it will rain every Sunday for 7 weeks.
Most people are optimistic about prospects for spring, but April
showers may bring more than May flowers.
Jonathan Mark noted in his 10 interesting facts about weather:
Spring fever is a
real syndrome. When the temperature rises during the warm spell
after a long winter, there is a dilation of the blood vessels so
blood can be carried to the body surface where heat can be lost
quickly. People experience an energetic feeling when this happens.
The National Weather Service forecasts delightful weather to get
some fresh air on both Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 61. West wind around 8 mph
becoming north in the afternoon.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. East wind 8 to 13 mph.
[Angela Reiners]
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