If you were expecting some kind of sun sign nonsense, forget it. This is real astrology. See the section above. Please note: this forecast is expressed in terms of Universal Time (UT).

I mentioned how "accidents, fires, crashes and criminal violence are bound to be heightened under the aegis of the Red Planet activation that continues pretty much unabated all month." Dates of exact Mars alignments - "the 4th, 16th and 20th" - were pointed out as "just the approximate peaks of a very high month-long cycle." No sooner had February begun than tragedy struck in the form of a space accident that led to a fiery crash: on the 1st, all seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia were killed when the craft broke up during reentry, for reasons yet unknown.

"Another bout of storm and seismic extremes looks likely between the 12th and 20th," I predicted; adding "I make this out to be the strongest indicator of the month, with regard to the potential for severe storms, flooding and earthquakes - and volcanic eruptions." Sure enough, the worst winter storm in years hit Washington DC on Sunday the 16th, dumping about two feet of the white stuff on the US capital. "If you're traveling during this period," I warned, "it wouldn't hurt to pad your itinerary to allow for weather-related delays." There were weather delays aplenty along the US east coast starting on the 16th. Reuters reported that "The storm restricted travel, shutting down highways and airports and made prisoners of millions of people by confining them to their homes on a long holiday weekend." Airports all along the east coast were forced to shut down, and seven states declared a state of emergency, ordering drivers off the roads. And on the 18th, it was fire as well as ice, with the Kilauea volcano coming back to life in Hawaii.

I warned that identity theft would be "a major theme" associated with this month's Jupiter-Neptune opposition. "Internet crime, hack attacks and a broader than usual assortment of worms and Trojans and viruses: these things weaken the electronic infrastructure and shake the foundations of commerce and communication." Although exact on the 16th, this alignment remains, as I noted, "within a few degrees of being exact throughout February and into early March." On Wednesday the 19th, Omaha-based Data Processors International (a major commercial credit card transaction processor), which processes transactions involving Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Financial Services for merchants, announced that it had "recently experienced a system intrusion by an unauthorized outside party." As many as eight million credit card numbers may have been stolen from the company in a "computer hacking incident," according to the FBI.