Do the first 12 days of the year predict the weather?

When I was young, my grandparents down below Frisco City used to pay close attention to the weather on the first 12 days of the new year. Supposedly, the weather on those days would serve as a general guide to how the weather would be throughout the rest of the year.

If it rains on the third day, then the third month – March – will be a wet one. If the seventh day is unusually warm, then the seventh month – July – will be unusually hot. If the tenth day is colder than normal, then you might want to look out for an early first frost in the tenth month, that is, October.

While this method of weather prediction probably isn’t 100-percent reliable, it may have served as a useful guide in the days before the Weather Channel. My grandparents kept their weather notes in their copy of the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which could always be found beside their old rotary telephone. Aside from the King James Version Bible, the almanac was probably the second most read publication in the house.

I was looking through the new 2025 almanac earlier this week and saw where the old holiday known as “Twelfth Night” will come to pass this coming Sunday. This almost forgotten holiday marks the evening before the Epiphany, which is also known as the Twelfth Day, that is, the twelfth day after Christmas. One superstition about Twelfth Night is that it’s unlucky to leave your Christmas decorations up after Twelfth Night.

This second Monday of the month marks the passage of another forgotten holiday, Plough Monday, which is always the first Monday after Twelfth Night. In England, Plough Monday – which you will also find in the Old Farmer’s Almanac – marks the traditional start of the agricultural year. At its core, this holiday was mostly about getting back to work after the Christmas holidays.

The day prior to Plough Monday was called – you guessed it – Plough Sunday. This religious holiday was all about blessing the land, and most celebrations involved bringing farm implements into church for special prayers. Today, some farmers in England ride their tractors to church for the “Blessing of the Plough.”

January’s full moon will also make its face shown on the second Monday of the month. January’s full moon is known as the Full Wolf Moon. The almanac says that it’s called the Wolf Moon because wolves are more likely to be heard howling at this time of year. The almanac also says that the January thaw typically begins around Jan. 25.

For the stargazers in the audience, Jan. 13 will be remarkable because the Moon eclipses the planet Mars. This rare event will appear halfway up the eastern sky for most locations with the Red Planet being at its brightest until 2013. This occultation will be visible throughout the mainland United States, beginning between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time. Mars will reappear about an hour later.

Before the end of January, people will also begin to notice that the days are getting a little longer. On Jan. 1, which was yesterday (Wednesday), the length of daylight hours during the day was nine hours and 10 minutes. By Jan. 31, the length of day will be nine hours and 59 minutes.