How They Forecast a
White Christmas and a Cold Winter
One day in early September the chief of a
Native American tribe was asked by his tribal elders if the upcoming
Christmas was going to be white with snow, and if the
winter was going to be cold or mild.
The
chief asked his medicine man, but he too had lost touch
with reading signs from the natural world around them.
In truth, neither of them had any idea about how to predict the coming
winter. However, the chief decided to take a modern approach,
so he rang up the local National Weather Service office.
'Yes,
it is going to be a cold winter,' the meteorological officer told the
chief.
Consequently,
he went back to his tribe and told the men to collect plenty of
firewood.
A fortnight later the chief called the Weather
Service and asked for an update. 'Are you still forecasting a cold
winter?' he asked.
'Yes, very cold', the weather officer told him.
As a result of this brief conversation the chief went back to the tribe
and told his people to collect every bit of wood they could find.
A month later the chief called the National Weather Service once more
and asked about the coming winter. 'Yes,' he was told, 'it is going to
be one of the coldest winters ever.'
'How can you be so sure?' the chief asked.
The weatherman replied: 'Because the local Native American tribe is
collecting wood like crazy.'
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