On Sun, 17 May 2009, Nick wrote
On May 17, 11:47 am, "Nick Gardner"
wrote:
What atrocious weather here this morning. Methinks the weather has forgotten
it is May and thinks it is January. Cold, wet and nasty.

The wind is doing a good job of defoliating the silver maple tree and all
the leaves are ending up in the pond.

Wind frequently gusting to over 30 mph and it is lashing it down. Horizontal
heavy rain with drizzle mixed in just for that extra wetting effect.

It's must be making it rather unpleasant for the organisers at the Dartmouth
Music Festival which this time last year was bathed in glorious sunshine for
the whole weekend.

It's surprising how often May, and in particular the second half of
May, is rather unpleasant: it seems that for the 6th time in 10 years
(the others being 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007) much of May (with an
emphasis on the later part of the month) is going to be not
particularly nice. In the south of England in recent times May tends
to be fairly consistently the least favourable month of the spring
from the point of view of settled weather: there's a nasty tendency
for the jetstream to go south fairly reliably for about two weeks at
this time of year. March by contrast tends to be predominantly settled
more often than not.

It's a hallowed tradition, the cold snap mid-May, known in Germany and
Austria as the days of the Eis Heiligen, the Ice Saints. This is from
Wiki:

The Ice Saints is the name given to St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St.
Servatus in Hungarian, German, Austrian, and Swiss folklore. They are so
named because their feast days fall on the days of May 11, May 12, and
May 13 respectively. The period from May 12 to May 15 was noted to bring
a brief spell of colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere under the
Julian Calendar. With the change to the Gregorian Calendar, however, the
equivalent days would be May 19–May 22.

In Poland, the Ice Saints are St. Pancras, St. Servatus and St. Boniface
Boniface; St. Boniface's feast day falling on May 14. The trio are known
collectively as the 'cold gardeners', the three days culminating in
'Zimna Zos'ka' (Cold Sophia's), the feast day of St. Sophia which falls
on May 15.

--
Kate B

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