Early 2023 Weather Predictions
Although folklore methods of predicting weather can be frequently imprecise and certainly aren’t without flaws, they can often shed some light on what conditions can be expected in our upcoming forecasts.
According to old folklore, fog in January brings a wet spring. If that sentence proves true, we can expect plenty of moisture during the planting season in 2023.
Though we are less than two full weeks into 2023, there have already been multiple days this year with very poor visibility in the morning hours at our production plant in George, Iowa. Observing conditions like these has likely led many farmers to speculate what weather they can expect in the coming months.
In addition to fog bringing a wet spring, another piece of folklore states that fog means a big storm is coming 90 days later. Hopefully that storm is a rainstorm, because in northwest Iowa we’re already seen our fair share of snow this winter.
Although we know these pieces of folklore are partially superstition, they are also rooted in a considerable amount of common sense. Both of these superstitions are based on the fact that the majority of moisture that reaches the Midwest is from the Gulf of Mexico. Since the fog we are seeing is likely originating from the gulf, one could predict that moisture will continue to follow this path through the following months and will lead to a wet season in the near future.
This article was partially inspired by an article written by the late Larry Kruse back in 2016. You can view Larry’s original article here.