One of the most inaccurate ways is to inspect the bands on a Woolly Bear caterpillar.
According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the longer the middle brown band, the milder and shorter the coming winter; the shorter the brown band, the longer and more severe winter will be.
By reading the bands on this guy it appears we're going to have an average winter.
Then there's the acorns. Oh my, do we ever have acorns this year. More acorns than I've ever seen in the nineteen years we've lived here in the oak trees.
When taking this picture I just walked under a large oak and pointed down. No looking for a special, acorn covered spot. All the ground under all oaks looks like this.
An abundance of acorns is supposedly the sign of a very rough winter ahead. I'm picturing snow up to the rafters.
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5 comments:
So Mother Nature is giving you conflicting information, I hope the caterpillar is right, you could use a gentle winter.
Most people here in BC are saying we are going to have a hard winter. I think they are coming to that conclusion simply because last year was so mild (which was a bad thing given we were hosting the Olympics!). Canadians are never optimistic about the weather, and the thought of two mild winters in a row seems impossible. :-)
Funny how you mention the acorns. My NJ friend was just saying last week abt the amount of acorns she has on her property! Just walking to her car is dangerous since they continue to fall on her. It will be interesting to see what kind of winter it will be.....
This spring we had more maple seeds than I've ever seen and this fall is the same with the acorns. The squirrels are gathering nuts from our neighbor's tree and have worn a path in the the grass! I don't know what this is predicting, but I'd rather have snow than ice.
We saw one of these little critters on our walk around Green Lake the other day. What's it mean if it's all orange? You're having acorns, and we're having pinecones, more than we've ever seen too. When we were in IL we could hear the acorns continually plinking down...also discovered burr oak acorns, very interesting and wish we had a photo.
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