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Will it be a December with a lot of snow? The wasps and chamois tell us …

War in Ukraine. Inflation. Skyrocketing energy prices. The winter season in the mountains begins with three anomalous question marks but, as always, what worries plant engineers and hoteliers most is if it snows in the mountains soon, in time for the weekend of the Immaculate Conception and for Christmas. If the national news broadcasts broadcast the images of Via Roma in Courmayeur, the Markets of Bolzano and the slopes of the Dolomites abundantly whitewashed, all the undecided will rush to book because the Christmas atmosphere will be perfect.

It goes without saying that even the most advanced meteorology that uses refined models and algorithms cannot predict snowfall until three or four days in advance and any other method to understand if it will snow in early December is obviously approximate. Those who work in the world of the Ski World Cupfor example, it takes as reference the weather conditions found in Levi in ​​Finland, during the first races on the calendar always in mid-November: if there is already a lot of snow in Levi, it means that the air in the Arctic Circle will already be subject to low temperatures which then two or three weeks later should arrive in the Alps. A consideration that often – not always – works but which can console. In cold weather, at least, you can shoot and whiten the slopes. But how can those who live in the mountains predict the weather? What does the tradition say?

The buttocks of the peasants and the Swiss ants

In Switzerland, for centuries, predicting snow through observing nature has become an art. Such Jörlieni Schmidig in the eighteenth century he was already able to get paid for his work as “haruspico of mountain weather”. In the Muotathal area above Lucerne, there is aan association that has about ten elderly people from the valley among its members (the club only admits men) who meet twice a year – moreover with a party spirit – to make predictions for the coming season, each with their own method. And between them they bet on who will be more precise. They are called Wetterpropheten (the “Weather prophets”, they also have a site) and have become an institution: Peter Suter94, is still often invited on national channels while Martin Horat he also became famous all over the world after being the protagonist of a television commercial ten years ago during which he sat on a huge anthill, got covered by dozens of insects, ate a couple of them and predicted how much snow from their movement it would be there in winter. Here is what they «prophesy» for this year, on their side of the Alps: «A very irregular weather after the first week of December with strong temperature changes. Some snow will arrive from 23, but not enough to whiten Christmas ».

The methods of our farmers

Even our mountain elders, who are less and less numerous, they follow empirical methods to interpret the signals of nature in this regard. Between the two extremes of the Alpine arc, each community has developed its own systems over the centuries and we have collected their opinions, obviously conflicting. Some study the winds, others plants and especially pine cones, the presence of mice, the reactions of foxes: the fact that it has already whitewashed in mid-September and that in October it was hot as never before, obviously confuses ideas.

In Piedmontthe old farmers who live in the Langhe at the foot of the Cottian Alps, on the other hand, have many certainties: this year it will be very cold and it will snow a lot. «We count how many layers of skin grow on a clove of garlic: this year there are four, a sign that it will snow a lot. It has always been like this, ”he tells us Valter Costamagna of Dogliani, in the province of Cuneo. “All this is also confirmed by how much the willows sprout and even more by how deep the snails hide under the ground in autumn. They are all unequivocal signs”. Under the Simplon it is customary to check if the gentians have already grown at the end of September: «If they grow in autumn, it means that spring will come late», they tell us.

TO Madesimoabove Lake Como near the border with Switzerland, they usually check the ripening of the red berries of the rowan: lots of berries in September and October should mean lots of snow at Christmas and there were lots of them this fall.

PHILIP S. GURA

In Trentino instead …

In Val di Fiemme there are those who put in September a small fir tree in a pot on the windowsill and predicts the weather by how quickly the branches and needles open. «And then the tradition of ziolethat is the onions, perpetuated over the centuries by the Franciscan friars of the old convent of Cavalese “, he tells us Dario Zorzi, an old Alpine veteran who spent his life in the woods: “on a late summer night a chopping board with 12 onion wedges, one for each month, is left outside the window, facing east, covered with a little cooking salt. At dawn the following day, analyzing how the white layers of the onion have changed, there are those who are able to understand how much and when it will snow. This year it seems it was impossible to express an opinion, given that the weather went crazy in the autumn ».

They make a similar speech to us also in Val Gardena: «Here the elders have taught us that we must look the spring crocuseslong-petaled flowers that grow (crocus albiflorus) in two colors: white and lilac “, he tells us Diego Deiana, the best known hiking guide in the area, specializing in the knowledge of medicinal alpine plants. “When there are more white flowers than purple in May, the following winter will be particularly snowy. This year, however, every calculation leaves the time it finds. Two weeks ago we were shooting in short sleeves even at 2000 meters and today there is already some snow in the village as well. For what it’s worth, old people mostly read the behavior of bees and wasps who at the end of the summer were very nervous and aggressive e therefore expect a very cold beginning of winter, if not even with a lot of snow ». An analysis also confirmed in other South Tyrolean valleys, albeit chamois and roe deer they did not go down to the valley when they should have and even in the absence of those strong storms with lightning and thunder that anticipate the cold. And there are even those who dare on the day of the first big snowfall: Sunday 11 Decemberthree days after the full moon.

Source: Vanity Fair

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