Why Missouri Fog Monday Could Be a Warning for Winter

We now live in an age where detailed computer models try to predict what the weather will do months ahead of time. There's an old school saying that was born long before this era of technology that says the fog that was prevalent in many parts of Missouri Monday could be an ominous sign for the upcoming winter.

If you were on the road anywhere near a river in Missouri Monday morning, this was what you likely saw

Topsphere Media via Unsplash

As I was driving my usual route to work in Missouri this morning, there was still plenty of fog in places. That immediately brought to mind something I remembered hearing about years ago. It's folklore about how fog in Missouri foretells major snow once winter arrives as documented by Farmer's Almanac. It goes something like this:

“For every fog in August, there will be a major snowfall the following winter.”

Back in the olden days, farmers would put beans in a jar every time they saw fog in August. If you experienced August fog a dozen times, you could count on a dozen major winter storms. They say that this folklore was born in Europe where the saying was “Much fog in autumn, much snow in winter.” I suppose that Missouri could take this math as good news since the fog Monday morning was one of the first ones I've seen this year and there's only a week left in the month, but math has never been my strong suit, so maybe don't take my advice on how many major snow storms Missouri will get slammed by.