The Village Snow Prognosticator

This is the Ice Queen from the "Narnia" movie. Our snow witch could be her mother, but she looks a lot like her, and is the epitome of what I think of as a Snow Witch.

Here in Wild Rose we have our very own village snowfall prognosticator, AKA... THE SNOW WITCH.

"Da, dat daaah...!" (like the three chords from "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?")

I'm told she prefers the title Snow Prognosticator. For me, though, there is just something more melodramatic about "Snow Witch" (da, dat, daaah).

So anyway, there's this woman who was taught by someone else how to tell the number of snowfall an area will receive based on interpretations of the first 'cat-tracking" snowfall. If your black cat can't leave visible track in the snow as it crosses your path, the snowfall doesn't count. (You can see where the whole cat thing leads me down the path to the name "THE SNOW WITCH"...da, dat, daaaah!)

Last year, she predicted over 45 snowfalls, I forget exactly how many. She nailed the exact number on the head. Down at the local library they post and track her predictions and report on where we are with unrelenting vigilance.

Everyone wants to know. I don't think she has been more than one snowfall off in ten years. It's uncanny.

They didn't used to post it, but in this busy age, it saves our librarians time just to post it on a big white board brought out specifically for that purpose.

This year, she is predicting 23 total snowfall, three of which have already passed.

So 20 more and counting...

Our "Snow Prognosticator" is unfailing...