Welcome to August: the last month of meteorological summer.
I didn’t want to get too far into the month before bringing up the topic of fog. We’ve already experienced some fog and no doubt there will be more before the month is out. Here’s why this is significant: Grandma believed it was very important to count the number of “fog days” in August. According to Grandma, there is a correlation between the number of foggy days in August and the number of winter snowfalls! She believed that for every August fog, there was a winter snowfall.
A “fog day” is defined as a day with fog that limits visibility to less than one kilometre and persists for several hours. And there’s more: a dense fog signifies heavy snowfall. Fog does become more likely in August: the nights grow longer and summertime humidity levels are still very high.
I have one more August weather saying for you, but you might not like it:
If the first week of August is unusually hot, the following winter will be cold and snowy.
As strange as this sounds, this one has a decent accuracy rate.
There is no scientific proof to either confirm or debunk this weather saying; still it’s fun to keep track of the weather folklore!
Gather the kids around, get out a real paper calendar, a pencil and you’re off. I want to hear from you at the end of the month.
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- Have a weather question, photo or drawing to share with Cindy Day? Email weathermail@weatherbyday.ca
Cindy Day is the chief meteorologist for SaltWire Network.
