Back on October 8th I wrote a little article here about the signs for winter and I thought we ought to look back and see how accurate we were.

As I write now, the ground is still white from the 7 inches of snow that fell Sunday (now 4 days ago) and it feels like 11° right now. The actual temperature at 2:45 is showing 22°.

We’ve had 2 significant snowfalls in the first 20 days of 2022 and as I look at the 10 day forecast, I see 7 days with lows in the teens.

We well know that the weather varies from year to year so I took a look back as some recorded data. In January 1955 Jamestown, TN recorded just 1.78 inches for the whole month, 3.13 inches in 1958, 6.8 inches in 1963, 12.1 inches in 1970, 5.3 inches in 1982. (1982 is the first year the National Weather Service says the data is “reliable”.) 7 inches in 1987, January 1995 had 5 inches and 2002 had 6.7 inches. Jamestown’s record snowfall was 18 inches on February 4, 1998. The Crossville airport’s record was on March 13, 1993 at 18 inches.

In October, I was looking at a bumper crop of acorns and hickory nuts. It seemed as though God had provided amply for the woodland foragers in preparation for a rough winter. Based on the snow and temperatures so far the nuts seem to be a good predictor.

I’ll check back in on this in March, who knows, the Easter flowers may bloom next month.