How do you know when.......

[mickee311]

it's going to be a hard winter? Asking because the wooly worms have extra thick coats this year...I've never seen fluffier woolies in my life! I've also not seen the squirrels out as of late.

Isn't that some sign that the winter is going to be hard?

[douglas]

Gee I hope not fer my wallets sake

[jeanette]

The wooly bear caterpillar, which turns into the tiger moth, Isia Isabella, is the source of a common superstition. Some people believe that the coat of a wooly bear caterpillar can be used to predict how bad the coming winter will be. There are many wooly bear caterpillars in the United States and Canada. They can be seen anytime from May to October.

They believe that if a wooly bear caterpillar's brown stripe is thick, the winter weather will be mild and if the brown stripes are narrow, the winter will be severe.

One experiment showed that the color bands might tell where the caterpillar grew up. Some think that the wide black bands mean the caterpillar was living in wet conditions while the wide brown band means the caterpillar was living in dry conditions.

The coloration may also show how near being an adult the caterpillar is. At full growth, fall weather signals the wooly caterpillar to seek shelter, as ladybugs do.

In the late 1600s, farmers relied on weather history to predict weather. For that reason, they looked for something in nature to help them. They found the wooly bear caterpillar. Reports about the weather, along with a comparison of wooly bear stripes, made people think that the wooly bear's coat was a good signal about weather. Some people still believe the wooly bear caterpillar can be used to predict weather.

[douglas]

We already had a lite frost this morning

[jeanette]

i'm pretty sure animals can tell...

here's an interesting link

www.rcn27.dial.pipex.com/cloudsrus/lore.html

[Deleted]

Thank you, very nice post

[mickee311]

But you didn't say anything about the thickness of the coat on the wooly worm. The color is of no matter. I've not seen any rabbits or squirrels around here, I'm wondering if they're holing up early for fear of the bad weather that may come. The temps have been unusually low here this month.

[strongtower9]

Mom says the Farmers Almanac is saying very bad in January. I haven't bought one yet to see what it says.

I have been at work so much I don't know whats going on out side. Usually covered up with rabbits.... I will have to check that out. !

[crazy1]

Ok, this is what I've learned over time. The WoolyBear has 3 rings, the one at the head will tell you the length of the fall. The one in the middle tells you the length of the winter. The tail ring tells of the spring. So if it has a wide ring in any area that tells you that season will be long. If they seem darker in color then that means it'll be more severe. I've watched them buggers for alot of years now and these seem to hold true.

[strongtower9]

I always just watched to see if the wooly worm was black, only then did I wonder about the winter. I always feel of my cats coat, check if its real thick or not, ( don't ask me why I just do it). It is pretty cool @ nite here. Seems like it happened suddenly but I probably wasn't paying attention. I have some kind of winter plant that does not come up till it is cold and dies out in warm weather. But some of it is already up. It is usually very cold before I see it.

[mickee311]

Thats why I asked, cause all of 'em 'round here have been black. And mad fat.

[strongtower9]

Well ... we may be in for it !!

[trudy]

Heres some more I found:

These are some of the more popular North Carolina folk sayings about autumn and the weather. Many variations exist and have been reported in numerous sources, including the Old Farmer's Almanac, the Foxfire series, and the collections of the NC Folklore Society. All of them are guaranteed to be true (sometimes).

* A warm November is the sign of a bad winter.

* Thunder in the fall foretells a cold winter.

* If animals have an especially thick coat of fur, it will be a cold winter.

* When squirrels bury their nuts early, it will be a hard winter

* If the woolly worms head is more black than colored, the coldest part of the winter will come in the first months of winter.

* The more black than brown a wooly worm has, and/or the wider the black stripe, the worse the winter.

* If fruit trees bloom in the fall, the weather will be severe the following winter.

* If berries or nuts are plentiful, it will be a hard winter.

* A cold winter is succeeded by a warm winter and vice versa.

* If the first snow falls on unfrozen ground, expect a mild winter.

* It will be a bad winter if trees keep their leaves until late in the fall

* Hornets nest built in the tops of trees point to a mild winter.

* The first twelve days of the year are thought to foretell the weather for each of the next twelve months. The variant is the 12 days from new Christmas (Dec. 25) to old Christmas (Jan. 5) determine the weather.

* If an owl hoots on the east side of a mountain it denotes bad weather.

Heres another:
www.teachnet.ie/jstacey/website/weather.htm
trudy

[jeanette]

* Hornets nest built in the tops of trees point to a mild winter
uh oh


this was on some of the bottom limbs at axe&T's house... i wonder what that means...