The Roar of March's Lion
We’re a third of the way into March, and the month has been true to its traditional weather variability. Here in the NC Blue Ridge mountains, we have had several significant 24-hour periods of non-stop winds recorded in the 45–75 mph range on our neighbor’s wireless weather station. “March comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb.” English Proverb. The saying was one of the many weather folklore in “Gnomologia; Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Saying, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British,” compiled by Thomas Fuller in 1732. Unfortunately, the March expression is not a valid weather predictor but merely a myth. Many of these concepts were based on ancestral beliefs that weather could be adversely affected by evil spirits; others were founded on the idea that there should be a balance between life and weather. This specific statement is believed to have evolved in relation to astrology. March begins with the constellation Leo (the lion) rising in the east; the month end...