Savannah, Ga (WSAV) – As we end out the month today, we can begin to test this weather folklore and see if the first 12 days of the year match up with the weather we experienced overall for that month. According to the folklore, the sunshine and above average temperatures we had on January 1st should extend through the entire month…let’s see.

JANUARY UPDATE

Sunny with above-average temperatures – this is what we can expect. And for much of the month, it turned out to be that way! Temperatures overall have been almost 5 degrees above average. 20 days out of this month had above average temperatures. As for the sunshine…our month started off strong. But the second half of the month was filled with more clouds and rain than sunshine. Overall, we had half sunshine and half clouds/rain.

February forecast: sunny and above average. Check back in at the end of February.

Weather Folklore

We’ve all heard the song the 12 Days of Christmas, but have you heard of the 12 Days of January? It comes from weather forecasting folklore. The weather that occurs over the first 12 days of the new year will represent the weather you can expect for each month. For example, the weather on the 3rd of January is what we can expect for the month of March.

This folklore dates back to farmers using this to predict how to prepare their crops for the rest of the year. It is still used today, especially by farmers in Mexico. This tradition extends throughout the entire month.

Not only do they look at the first 12 days, but every day through the rest of the month. It gets a little complicated, so stick with me.

Starting off, January 1st-12th follow the months in chronological order: January, February, March….November, December. January 13th-24th follows the months in descending order: December, November, October,…February, January. Okay…that makes sense, right?

Here is where it gets complicated: January 25th-30th divides each day into two: the first half is from midnight through noon and the second half from noon to midnight. The first half follows the odd-numbered months: January, March, May, July, September and November. The second half follows the even-numbered months: February, April, June, August, October and December.

Don’t worry about keeping up with all of that for the rest of the month… For all purposes of this study, I am going to follow the January 1st-12th rules where the weather occurring on that date represents the overall weather for that respective month.

January 1st – January 12

We’ve had a little bit of everything over the first 12 days of January – going from near-record warmth and severe weather to cold, chilly sunshine. I guess this means we should hang on tight for the rest of the year.

It will be interesting how each month turns out overall. Each month I’ll be noting how many days we’ve had above/below/at average and looking at the amount of rain we received as well.

DATEWEATHERRESPECTIVE MONTH
January 1stSunny
Above Average		January
January 2ndSunny
Above Average		February
January 3rdMostly Clear
Above Average		March
January 4thSevere T-Storms
Above Average		April
January 5thSunny & Breezy
Above Average		May
January 6thSunny
Above Average		June
January 7thSunny
Average		July
January 8thSun to Clouds
Above Average		August
January 9thClouds to Sun
Above Average		September
January 10thClouds to Sun
Above Average		October
January 11thMostly Sunny
Above Average		November
January 12thSevere T-Storms
Above Average		December