Winter Weather Folklore

Updated:

This is our unscientific survey of the weather signs to see what the winter weather may be like. John Belski is a weather folklore expert and has been studying the signs for a number of years. He has written a book about weather folklore containing over 1,300 sayings and it lists the ones that are accurate. Most of the winter weather sayings are just for fun.

There are some short range weather signs that are very accurate. We will see which of the signs below are correct for this winter.

**WINTER WEATHER FOLKLORE SCOREBOARD**
*Cold/Snowy*	*Mild*	*Normal*
19	3	4

July 25-Puffy white clouds on this date mean a cold winter...it was cloudy and then we had the puffy clouds for about 3 hours in the afternoon.....COLD

July 25-the weather after this date foretells the weather after Christmas. It was windy with the temperature below normal.....COLD

August fogs-the foggier the August...the snowier the winter. We had 16 days with fog in August... SNOWY

If there is fog on August 24, the following winter will be cold. We had near zero visibility that morning.....COLD

As the weather in July, it will be in January. Our weather in July was unusually cool....COLD

If the ant hills are tall during the summer or fall, you can expect a cold winter. COLD

Hedge apples-A plentiful crop of hedge apples is a sign of a cold winter. There have been an average crop of hedge apples this season...NORMAL

Wooly worms- there are 4 sayings here. The main one concerns the brown band. Wooly worms are black on both ends and brown in the middle. The wider the brown band, the milder the winter. This year the brown band is wider than usual...MILD There have been an average number of wooly worms around....NORMAL If the all black wooly worms are extra furry, it will be a cold winter....COLD If the wooly worms are visible before the first frost, it will be a cold winter....COLD

A large number of walnut trees lost their leaves very early this year....in September. The last time this happened was in 1977. The following winter we had 50 inches of snow. Based on that we are giving this forecast....SNOWY.

If the peak fall color is late, it will be a cold winter. This year the peak was a couple days before the average date. That is close enough that we will call it a NORMAL forecast.

Bushy squirrel tails is a sign of a cold winter....COLD

If the squirrels bury their food it will be a cold winter. If they carry their food up to their nests, it will be a mild winter. This year the squirrels have been very busy burying their food the last couple of months.....COLD

We have had a number of reports of cats that stopped shedding early this fall and also that cats' fur is thicker than usual which points toward a COLD winter.

When spring flowers bloom again during the fall, that is a sign of a cold winter coming up. So far there has been a "second season" bloom of the crabapples, viburnum, bamboo nandina and several others. COLD

2 weather sayings with spiders. Large numbers of spiders in the fall and spiders coming into the house early in the fall season are both signs of a cold winter coming up. Both of these have been seen.....COLD...COLD

On November 10, if the leaves are still on the silver maple trees, it will be a cold winter. This year the leaves were gone before November 1....MILD

The longer the leaves are on the trees in the fall, the colder the winter. This season the leaves fell early.....MILD

The Old Farmer's Almanac says temperatures will be a little below normal with average snowfall. December is forecast to be more than 4 degrees above normal but January will have some cold waves.

The Farmers' Almanac says it will be a very cold and snowy winter for us. "Numbingly cold" they are calling it.

A warm November is usually followed by a cold winter. This November the temperatures are averaging several degrees above normal and it is expected to stay mild into Thanksgiving....COLD

The wildlife have a thick coat of fur going into the winter season......COLD

Dandelions blooming during November is a sign of a cold winter coming. This phrase like others goes by the rule that if it is warm in November, then the weather must turn around and get colder than normal during the winter....COLD