Cold spell in May .....Just blame the 'Ice Saints'

May 11th is the day of St. Mamertus, May 12th of St. Pancratius, May 13th of St. Servatius, and May 14th of St. Boniface.	1
“Ces saincts passent pour saincts gresleurs, geleurs, et gateurs du bourgeon.”—Rabelais.

Basically this weather folklore is very well known in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. Here is an English translation of the information I found in German about the “Eisheiligen”. (May 99)

Are the “Ice Saints” out of tune??

Many of the old weather rules are forgotten. Nowadays, we rather rely on the weather forecast of radio and television. The “Ice Saints” are known for a cooling trend in the weather between 11th and 15th of May. 

For centuries this well-known rule had many gardeners align their plantings after it. Observations of weather patterns over many years have shown, however, that a drop in temperature occurs frequently only around May 20. 

Are the “Ice Saints” not in tune anymore? The mystery solution is found in the history of our calendar system: Pope Gregory VIII arranged a calendar reform in 1582, whereby the differences of the Julian calendar could be corrected to the sun year to a large extent. 

The day of the “Cold Sophie” (May 15) was the date in the old calendar and corresponds to today’s May 22. Therefore the effects of the “Ice Saints” is felt in the timespan of May 19-22. Sensitive transplants should only be put in the garden beds after this date.

Lack of a growing season around the Great Lakes? – Audio Joe Bastardi.

Lack of a growing season around the Great Lakes? – Audio Joe Bastardi.


“We are in a pickle up here,” says meteorologist Joe Bastardi from WeatherBell.com in his Saturday Summary (19 Apr 2014).

“Back in February we were very worried that there was going to be a lack of a growing season around the Great Lakes and Ontario because of the tremendous ice couver on the Great Lakes and how cold a spring and summer it’s going to be,” says Bastardi.

“The reason why there’s a lot of ice on the Great Lakes – don’t tell anybody this, be very quiet – is because it’s been COLD!”

Bastardi also points out that we’ve been seeing record-breaking LOW tornadoes. Why? Because it has been so COLD!

The opposite happens of what has been predicted, and “no one says boo about it,” says Bastardi.
“C’mon… you journalists out there… you gotta look at more than what you’re being fed!” says Bastardi. “You gotta go out and do just a little bit of research. Hey, I’m appealing to you over here!”


Listen to the audio tape: http://www.weatherbell.com/saturday-summary-april-19-2014

Hmmmm......My heart go's out to these hardworking farmers , fruit growers and wineries around the lakes, these people face a potential disastrous year, will the wineries survive that much frost?  And is this the beginning of a new mini ice age?