The Cabbage Butterfly Moon waxes throughout the first week of April, becoming completely full on April 6 at 2:19 p.m. Lunar phase encourages planting of flowers and vegetables that will produce their fruit above the ground, especially when the moon enters Scorpio on April 7.

Rising in the afternoon and setting before dawn, the moon moves overhead late in the evening next week, making that the best time for fishing. After-dark angling should be most productive as the barometer falls in advance of cool front due to arrive around April 6.

Full moon is expected to make next weekend especially troublesome for health care workers and public service employees. If you are having a difficult relationship with pets, livestock or lovers, the weekend of April 7-8 may be the roughest of the month.

At 10 o’clock tonight, the twins of Gemini are almost overhead. To their west, almost directly above Orion, the brightest star is Capella. Along the southwestern horizon, the most prominent star is Sirius, the Dog Star of middle summer. Hercules is rising in the east.

Before dawn, the sky looks like early August: Hercules has moved to the center of the sky. The Summer Triangle, which includes Vega, Altair and Deneb, is just a little behind Hercules; that is, to his east. The rich band of the Milky Way passes through the Triangle, separating it from autumn’s Pegasus, the Great Square.

Weather patterns

Two major weather systems, one arriving on April 2 and another coming in on April 6, usually dominate the first quarter of the month, and these fronts bring each day of the period a 40 percent chance for precipitation.

April 3 and 5 are some of the wettest days of the month, carrying about a 60 and a 70 percent chance for precipitation, respectively. Snow is most likely to fall (but only 10-20 percent of the time) on April 3-5.

There is a 20 percent chance for a high in the 80s next week, and there is more than a 50 percent chance of an afternoon in the 60s or 70s. Still, the first quarter of the fourth month is its coldest quarter, and daily chances for frost remain steady at an average of 40 percent throughout the period, peaking around the full of the moon on April 6.

Zeitgebers for this week of the year typically include blooming of the first purple cress, hepatica, Dutchman’s britches, bloodroot and twinleaf. Hemlock is bushy, and basal leaves of the tall ragwort are forest green and swelling in the ditches.  Skunk cabbage leaves have started to spread out, and forsythia almost always opens this week in the lower Midwest and the East, as monarch butterflies arrive in Texas.

April 2: Allergy season comes to the whole nation with the first front of April. During the weeks ahead, trees are in full flower throughout the Central Plains, the Northeast, the Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. In the southeastern coastal plains, all the grasses are blooming.

Pollen from whatever is blossoming to the west of you will arrive at your front yard every two to three days. Cold fronts bring northern allergens to southern areas. Low pressure in advance of the cold fronts brings up allergens from the South.

April 3: Between April 1-June 1, up to dozen frosts occur at lower elevations along the 40th Parallel during a typical year. Of course, in some years, frosts end with March.

Normally, however, the approximate chances for frost follow a regular and steadily declining trajectory through the end of May. Chances for frost per night at average elevations for the month: April l, 98 percent; April 20, 75 percent; April 30, 50 percent.

April 4: Japanese beetle grubs move to the surface of the ground to feed. Carpenter bees become active in your siding and outbuildings. Remove mulch from roses. Complete spring transplanting of berries, bushes and trees.

April 5: When oak leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear, watch for weevils building up in the alfalfa. When you see cabbage butterflies at your garden greens, morel mushroom season opens and tent caterpillars hatch. Barn swallows arrive in the hills as barred owls break out from their eggs and grape hyacinths bloom. In the Northeast, red-winged blackbirds and wood frogs begin to sing this week.

April 6: Passover is celebrated between today and April 14. This market typically is best after religious holidays come to a close. Milk-fed lambs and kids below 60 pounds are favored for Passover sales.

April 7: Yesterday’s full moon and middle spring’s second major cold front bring heightened chances for severe weather today, but odds for milder conditions increase in two or three days.