Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Weather By The Moon
It was still flourishing in the muddy trenches of World War
I. The idea is that the sweat of soldiers produces rising
rain-stimulating vapors, or that the waters are shaken from
the clouds by the noise of cannon.
But it is more likely that men fight more when their
adrenalin systems are stimulated by the lunar cycle, and
that the same gravitational effect that the moon exerts to
produce a storm or weather change will also produce a kind
of micro-storm within a person’s head. There would be a
use, too, for a sympathetic climatic backdrop to the drama
and excitement of an imminent battle.
There are several interesting examples of this. In
January, 1777, during the early, critical days of the American
Revolution, George Washington found himself trapped
fighting against the British garrisoned at Princeton. On January
2 nd the wind changed to the northwest and the roads
began to freeze. Washington immediately took the offensive.
He slipped out of the trap, marched his inspired army
12 miles to the outskirts of Princeton in the dead of night,
and caught the British by surprise. And perhaps it was just a
coincidence that it was also a New Moon.
The 6 th of June 1944 proved marginal weather, with
choppy seas and overcast skies. It was the Allied Invasion
of Normandy. The Germans, doubting an invasion in such
inclement conditions, were caught completely off guard.
It was the week of the Moon’s Perigee and the day of the
Full Moon. Perhaps another coincidence?
No one can deny that aspects of the environment are
predictable. Day follows night, summer follows winter,
most of us sleep when it’s dark, eat at midday and watch the
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