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Winter weather and old Welsh sayings

Posted by Russell Rees-Davies on March 25, 2008 8:16 AM | 

MANY years ago when I was farming with my family at Cefn Meiriadog we used to get severe downfalls of snow.

By severe, I mean levels of snow eighteen inches to two feet deep in the fields and three to four feet drifts, as high as the well-manicured hedges.
 
Nowadays, the presenters on television give severe weather warnings of snow falls as much as two inches
 
When the thaws used to set in my father often used to quote an old proverb in Welsh.
 
“Mae’n oer i rhewi, ond mae’n oerach i ferioli”.
 
Which means, “It is cold to freeze but colder to thaw”.
 
Some people used to think he was talking through his hat. How can it be colder to thaw when the temperature actually rises?

But there was some sense in that old saying. Today’s television presenters have started saying something similar. They call it the ”Feel Like Factor”. The actual temperature reading on the thermometer may be plus 6 degrees celcius but with the wind chill,  it “feels like” one degree below freezing. 
 
Grannie and Granddad knew best. My father wasn’t talking through his hat after all! 


 

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Russell grew up on the family’s 83-acre mixed farm at Cefn Meiriadog, near St Asaph. After his father died, Russell worked as an agricultural sale rep until his retirement in 1998. He was also a Red Coat at Butlin's Pwllheli, made 57 television appearances in Britain and abroad, and is a noted animal impressionist.

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