If It Rains Today, Expect 40 More Days According to My Grandma

My grandmother grew up during the great depression outside of Shreveport. When she married my grandfather, they not only bought the lot they built their house on, but the lot behind the house. That second lot they turned into a garden. With her having a garden, it meant I learned how to work in a garden for most of my childhood. I learned how to watch the weather and the moon for certain times to plant things. Some of the things she told me I ended up forgetting. One that has always stuck with me, and I still use is

Thunder in February, cold spell in April.

My mother and I to this day listen for thunder and mark it on the calendar in April. Within a day, give or take, it happens every time.

With all of the rain lately, it reminded me of her rain theories. According to her, if we get rain today, it's going to rain for 40 more days. If it doesn't we will have 40 days of calm weather, not sure if that means hurricanes or not.

She wasn't totally off. July 15 actually represents St. Swithin's day. Without boring you with the details, someone got the idea to remove the remains of St. Swithin from their resting place. The story goes that once the bones were moved, violent storms happened and rain fell for 40 days.

Of course, it has never rained in the world for 40 days, well unless you count that one time. The closest was in 1924 when it rained for 30 days in the area of Swithin's remains. Other than that, it has never actually happened according to records.

Let's be honest, at this point we just would be happy with a 24 hour run of no rain.