Severe Epiphany frosts: myth or reality?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Perhaps, among contemporaries it is impossible to find a person who has never heard of Epiphany frosts. According to the calendar, they coincide with January 19 - the Orthodox holiday of the Epiphany, which is equal in meaning to Easter and is considered one of the most important and most ancient.

Traditions and signs

Moreover, believers, despite the sharp and significant cooling, accompany the festivities with mass bathing in the consecrated Jordanian holes.

This atmospheric phenomenon gave rise to many folk signs. According to the observations of the ancestors, the thaw, fog and hoarfrost at Epiphany were interpreted as favorable signs of the harvest of bread, peas, and when it snowed in Epiphany frosts in winter, it was believed that buckwheat would spoil. They also believed that if the frosts on Epiphany are much stronger than Christmas ones and last all week, then after that they will definitely be replaced by a week of thaw, and then there will be frosts again, even more severe, but already the last of this winter.

Cause and effect

From a scientific point of view, the term "Epiphany frost"is questioned, since, according to long-term observations of meteorologists, a cold snap does not always fall on January 19. Sometimes frosty weather sets in much earlier than the designated date, and sometimes much later. These terms have a significant "backlash" of up to two weeks.

But still, most people believe that this cold snap is connected precisely with Epiphany. This is clearly a psychological factor. Several cases were registered when a thaw began on the appointed date, and the temperature drop occurred much later. But people still claimed that Epiphany frosts were raging in the yard. It is easier for the population to attribute everything to mysticism, since the inhabitants are eager to see the inexplicable and mysterious where it often does not exist. This weather phenomenon is tied to a religious performance that has long since been firmly established.

Hydrometeorologists authorized to report

Scientists who have reliable information about the average annual temperature statistics, give a completely scientific explanation for this atmospheric phenomenon. The fact is that in most of Eurasia, the weather in the second half of January is determined by the Asian anticyclone, which dominates for a period of two weeks and leads to a sharp drop in temperature.

It is impossible to say unequivocally when the cold will clear up in full force in winter, from a scientific point of view, there is no drop in temperature that falls exactly on January 19th. And ifthe weather is fierce a little earlier, starting on January 13, then people say that Epiphany frosts are early this year, and if after 25 they say that they are late this year. Science, however, does not support such a popular idea, because due to the variability of the movement of air mass flows in the Earth's atmosphere, which generates turbulence, the weather is positioned as a random process. Therefore, any forecast is possible only with a small degree of probability. Neither the decrease in temperature nor the duration of the frost period can be the same in different years. The spread is over a week.

What are the frosts after Epiphany?

So, these weather vagaries are purely psychological and artificially created folk binding to an outstanding religious date, since they are far from the only ones. After all, in addition to those mentioned above, there are Christmas, and Timofeevsky, and Nikopol, and Sretensky frosts. Moreover, religious holidays and weather events may not coincide also because there is approximately the same time interval of 2 weeks between well-known winter celebrations, such as Christmas, Epiphany, Timothy. And cyclones and anticyclones rage only for a week, because it is these atmospheric phenomena, and not the date on the calendar at all, that indicate the time of temperature drop. Here they are - Epiphany frosts!