The traditional proverb that a sunny day on Lidong (立冬, the first day of winter) means a sunny winter might be true, data released on Friday by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) showed.
The administration looked at proverbs related to Lidong, one of the 24 solar terms of the lunar calendar and which fell on Nov. 8 this year, to see how accurately they held up against data collected in Taiwan.
Two of the proverbs suggest that the weather pattern of a given winter could be determined by the weather on Lidong (such as a sunny Lidong would lead to a sunny winter).
Photo: CNA
Another proverb conversely claims that the average temperature of a year’s winter would be the opposite of the temperature on Lidong, meaning a warm Lidong would lead to a cold winter and vice versa.
The CWA used data collected between 2000 and last year from weather stations in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Hualien County, as well as 11 other stations in low-lying locations to see if the temperatures and weather patterns matched up with any of the traditional proverbs, it wrote on Facebook.
The weather stations clocked an average of 12 warm Lidong days in Taipei, 10 in Taichung, 11 in Tainan and 14 in Hualien County over the 23-year period, it said.
In years with warm Lidong days, colder winter patterns were rare, seen after only 25 percent of the 12 warmer Lidong days in Taipei and after 40, 55 and 50 percent of the warmer days in Taichung, Tainan and Hualien respectively, disproving the temperature proverb in Taiwan, it said.
Regarding the weather proverb, Tainan experienced the most sunny Lidong days over the past 23 years, recording 21, while Taipei and Taichung had 20 and Hualien had nine, it said.
Tainan recorded an average of 71 percent of sunny days in its 21 sunny Lidong years, Taipei and Taichung recorded 60 percent in their 20 years, and Hualien recorded an average of 56 percent in its nine years, confirming the proverb that a sunny Lidong day means a sunny winter in Taiwan, the CWA said.
However, the agency said it found no correlation between wet Lidong days and rainy winter weather throughout Taiwan, as suggested by one proverb.
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