Of Predictions And Prophecy | Spirit Daily Blog

Prophecy is can be, let us say, imprecise when it comes to the future. Translation: wrong. It depends, of course, on who is prophesying.

But what about science and its predictions?

Take the current winter.

Around the end of December, meteorologists were telling us that the second half of January was going to be “unusually warm,” especially in the eastern part of the U.S.

For the second half of January 2026, many long-range forecasters—including NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center—were caught off guard by the sheer intensity of the Arctic shift.

Reality check: as we near month’s end, it has been one of the coldest in recent memory—a study in contrasts.

Likely will be remembered more for its severe late-month cold snap than its overall average.

While the first half of the month featured “up and down” patterns and even a brief thaw, the massive Arctic outbreak and winter storm around January 24–26 shifted the narrative and this weekend may bring another.

It will certainly be cold, with lows in the twenties in Florida and even some predicting (there goes that word again) the possibility of snow or at least flurries in Miami.

Last weekend, during the onset of the snow in the Midwest, Northeast, and majority of southern states, Miami had a “real feel” at one point of about ninety.

Now, nothing quite historic, but for many major cities, this month represents the most significant “real winter” they’ve experienced in nearly a decade. Between January 17 and January 28, temperatures across the Midwest and East plummeted significantly below normal. For example, Pittsburgh and Nashville [above, caked in ice] saw averages roughly 11–12°F below normal during that window.

Many Northeast cities, including Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, are tracking toward a top 5 or top 10 coldest late-January stretches on record. The American Falls at Niagara is icing over, and snowfall has been more than in ten to fifteen years, from what we’re told.

Historically winters are very tough up there. Not so much any longer. We were there for the Blizzard of 1977 that set national records, with snowdrifts covering two-story homes and drifts so high that one venturing up might stub one’s toe (boot) on the top of a telephone pole (this actually happened to someone we know).

We recall going to seven-a.m. Masses in the Albany area and noticing the back thermometer register twenty below.

Did you ever have to shovel your driveway four times on Christmas Day, and then face an equally severe storm the following week (both two feet of snow)?

But of late many northern cities have seen such mild winters that plants have begun to bloom in February.

That won’t happen this year.

Globally, take a look at a city in Russia:

Meanwhile, Australia has been registering record heat.

The weather—as has been accurately prophesied—is swerving all over the place, and that will continue.

The global trend is still toward warming (as during the Middle Ages, which peculiarly was also a time of societal upset) but the story is in the erratic nature and—well, of nature.

It seems near to be mimicking us humans.

Storms?

A very tame hurricane season in the South will probably not be followed by another.

As far as cyclones: they’ve raised havoc in Portugal, Spain, and Italy (take a look at a resultant landslide last week in southwestern Sicily, and note especially that a Cross survived near the precipice).