And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great (Revelation 16:21).

Hail Prophecy Came True

One night in 1883, the weary editor of a New England farmer’s almanac closed his desk and prepared to leave. He had predicted the weather conditions for every day of the coming year except July 13th and that could be filled in the next morning.

That evening an agitated office boy arrived with word that the printer’s deadline had been moved up and the completed copy for the almanac must go out on the next train. The editor ordered impatiently: “Put in something suitable for July 13th—but don’t bother me.”

Finished copies had been distributed when the editor, worrying a bit about sales—for the margin of profit was small—happened to notice the prediction for July 13th. It read: “Wind, Hail and Snow.”

Livid with rage, he summoned the office boy. The lad stammered that he thought such weather would be nice—and unusual for that date. In despair, the editor resigned himself to bankruptcy.

But on the morning of July 13th, 1884, wind, hail and snow did descend upon New England. By this one prediction, the almanac became both famous and prosperous—all because of an office boy’s farfetched prophecy.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes