One of my favourite weather rhymes is this: “The moon and the weather may change together, but a change in the moon can’t change the weather.” It’s true. Scientists all over the world will confirm it.
For decades, our ancestors – including Grandma – believed that the full moon brought frost. In the spring, my grandmother would never put the garden in until after the full moon in May. She was raised in Ontario and that seemed to work.
Shortly after I moved to Atlantic Canada almost 20 years ago, I started to hear people say that it was not wise to put out delicate plants until after the full moon in June! Well, that seems late but these things do change regionally.
Dawn Brown posted this on my Facebook page last week: “As my Dad always told me . . . even in June, there is a chance of frost . . . and anything fragile should not be planted until after the Full Moon in June. This year it’s late . . . not until the 28th.”
For many that seemed too long a wait, but there were frost warnings for June 16 in parts of Newfoundland. I guess we now have proof that our ancestors were onto something.
On that note, a few years ago a viewer sent an old newspaper clipping that recounted a devastating late June frost in 1918 in southeastern New Brunswick. The first thing I did was check the calendar! The frost came on June 19 and 20. The full moon, you guessed it, was after that on June 24!
Grandma was right again!
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Cindy Day is the chief meteorologist for SaltWire Network.
