So I would like to present you with the following weather folklore that I have noticed around here that indicate a harsh winter:
- The Squirrels have been going crazy all Summer long!
- The nests of the bees and wasps are high up this year.
- Ant hills were high in July.
- The wild grasses and weeds are quite tall this Summer.
- The fruit bearing plants have been absolutely loaded! And the birds have cleaned the fruit
bearing trees out already!
- Fruits are ripening and falling early.
- The insects have been RIDICULOUS this year…no matter how much we spray…ants and
spiders everywhere!
- The first week of August has been warm, and that fortells a winter white and long.
Some to look for as we head towards and into Autumn:
- If St. Bartholomews be clear, a prosperous Autumn comes that year (St.
Bartholomews is August 24th).
- Dry August and warm, doth harvest no harm.
- If Michaelmas (Sept. 29th) brings many acorns, christmas will cover the
fields with snow.
- When berries are many in October, beware a hard winter.
- When birds and badgers are fat in October, Winter will be harsh.
- If the wind comes from the NW on St. Martins Day (Nov. 11th) there’s
a severe winter on the way.
Also, by late August/early September is when I will start looking for wooly worms, the fall spiders, and see how the acorn crop is.
Berry plants have been loaded this year. They ripened fairly early. Surprisingly, animals haven’t been eating them up that fast (not sure why). There was a noticeable lack of fog in July… even the first week of August has hardly brought any fog. However, I have personally not observed much of a correlation between fog and snowfall in my region in past years. Haven’t seen many wasp nests this year (I usually spray them as soon as they start building near the house, my wife is allergic). Ant hills have been relatively high… I too had to do a lot of spraying to keep bugs from coming in. The weeds are rather short here compared to normal, I attribute that to the dry summer we’re having.
I guess that so far, you can say I’m having mixed signs.
When I was pulling weeds in my front bed, I uncovered a nest of wollys, black, brown,black, and soil;d black. Snakes are too pentiful too!! LOL. But the bugs are too. The trees are loaded down to the point of breaking, and tons of berries. Isnt there something about if the weeds grow high ??
Yes, “however high the wild grass and weeds grow, so too the bank of snow.”
Oh goody !!! They are high !!!!!!! Father we will have to keep track so we can see which ones are the more accurate, for our areas. Thanks for answering. Karen
Does anyone have a good idea of winter precip for Western Kentucky? I am enjoying learning all the weatherlore signs. I saw my first baby woolyworm yesterday and he was very black.
Not sure about the other signs but this first week of August sure has been hot and very humid!! I really have not paid alot of attention to other signs but I will start to. One thing I noticed was a big spider web and it was up kind of high off the ground. Does that mean anything??
Some signs that have been passed on to me from my grandfather are being seen here in Eastern KY.
I,ve noticed that the corn shucks here are pretty thick.
Spider webbs are being built high up.
Oak trees are loaded with nuts.
Fruit trees and bushes have been loaded this year.
I have also been told by my grandfather that when Golden Rods are in full bloom the first cold snap will be 6 weeks from full bloom (have not seen any yet).
Now just waiting on persimons to tell there tale. Spoon, Fork, or Knife.
I suspect that most of the “signs” have little or no predictive value and the few that actually do are mis-interpreted by modern people who have simply lost touch. For example unless you really have studied the number of acorns dropped year after year over a lifetime how can you differentiate between a heavy acorn drop and exceptional acorn drop?
I think most people, myself included are “winter” and “snowfall” fans so we start interpreting signs that support what we actually wan’t to happen. If you went back and looked at these comments year after year the majority of people citing natural “signs” have predicted “cold” or “snowy” winters the vast majority of the time.
Unless you have studied the height of spider webs and squirrel activity year after year how can you accurately make predictions?
Glennkoks must you be a “debbie-downer”. We love looking for signs. We all know that what will be will be. I do know that my first year on this FA weather forum, all the signs that I noticed; I was pleasantly surpised to see that we had more snow than we had for a long time. Lots of snow in Virginia. I’ve been a fan ever since. If you think about it God gives us signs for a reason. We didn’t always have meterologist. Also, isn’t it better to be prepared just in case? I have elderly parents, and friends who I now tell to get prepared. Oh yeah that year in 2009; there were an abundance of acorns! They were falling on homes sounding like someone was dropping rocks on the roof. Animals don’t have meterologist; they do indeed depend on their instincts. Therefore we look for the animals for clues.
snowlover, I don’t want to be labeled a “debbie downer” and I love fall and winter as well. I look to the animals for clues as well but I just doubt our ability to correctly interpret the signs that they are showing us. Modern tools like radar, satellites and a better understanding of oscillations have made us more dependent on technology and I think we all pay less attention to the natural signs then our forefathers did.
For example how do you measure a heavy acorn drop vs an average one? Do the spider webs higher in the trees garner more attention than the lower ones because of our natural bias to yearn for a cold winter?
Dear, I was raised by farmers in a farming town that have been using natural signs to predict the weather for centuries. I know what to look for and what not to look for. Furthermore, there is no use getting excited or down about what Winter is going to be like yet. I have presented my prelim. forecast but did give fair warning that much can change.
FatherFrost “however high the wild grass and weeds grow, so too the bank of snow.” Oh baby, oh baby! Last year we only needed to weed-wack once a month in the back 40. This year if we go over 2 weeks, it’s a nightmare to catch-up. Also this year we’ve noticed alot of wild strawberries growing under the brush.
We live in the western edge of the Piedmont of NC.
SIGNS! Well we’ve started seeing some already. This year the bug population exploded. Started noticing 2 weeks ago that the spiders (and they are numerous this year) starting webbing and none of them are low, but very high. Leaf hoppers, OMG, they have been numerous this year. But in the last week we’ve noticed that they have dropped off dramatically. Our yearly mouse (or mouses not sure) has already taken up residence under our hibiscus bush – I know because it ran across my foot one Friday as the dog was chasing it. Usually we don’t see the mouse until late Aug/early Sep just before the first cold snap, I suspect looking to get in the house for the winter. Our male hummingbirds usually get very territorial about the feeder about 3 weeks before they leave. Again, generally the very end of Aug/early Sept. They’ve already started in the last week. Moths! Usually in Sept we see them start descending and flying around the ground. Commented to hubby the other night started seeing it this past couple of days. (My one dog thinks they are a great snack!). Last night we saw Mothra and boy was it having a hard time staying in the air.
Our garage is filling up with crickets yet again too. But usually we don’t see these for another week or so and then spend the rest of August and all of September trying to get them back outside.
Haven’t seen any woolly worms as of yet.
I have to say,,, here in North Jersey things are slower. No active critters running around, even leaves changing or falling. Last year we had much activity that FA Peter notice the early changes. So far as of righ now, things are still calm here, but I am watchig as we get to Mid August to see if that changes.
FatherFrost I forget what part of the country are you at, seeing the changes already.
Here is a link I posted earlier with the info for winter lore…
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/2011/01/10/snow-lore-101/
Glennkoks, I fully understand your point. I always try to be a realist when looking at signs, whether “good” or “bad.” Really, I like to compare the signs I see to the actual weather conditions of the coming winter… sometimes they are close, sometimes way off.
I spent some time outside the other day… things I noticed:
- We’re getting fog at night but it burns off VERY early in the morning… pretty much just after dawn.
- Crickets and grasshoppers are out in full force. I wouldn’t say that there’s an extreme amount, and they’re not out extremely early, but there are a lot of them and they are out maybe a week earlier than normal. Crickets are chirping during the day, which is interesting.
- In spite of a general lack of rain, berry bushes have done very well.
- Squirrels have long but not very bushy tails thus far. They have not been “going crazy” whatever on earth that means.
- Getting more and more ants in the house… but most likely because the bug spray is wearing off around the building, especially after recent rain. I don’t see this as an actual winter sign necessarily.
- Until recently, there’s been a general lack of dew and fog. The dew part surprises me especially. Can’t remember the last summer where most mornings the grass is completely dry.
- I’ve seen some pine needles turning orange already. Not many, just a few. It’s a little bit early for the first orange pine needles, which usually come in late August. Not sure what this “means”. It probably means that we just had a dry summer.
The key is to think completely and wholly about what you observe. Some things may be “signs of winter” and others might be results of the spring/summer/fall that just occurred. Other “signs” have other causes… for example, see my comment about the ants above. Have fun reading signs, but don’t be completely unreasonable.
MaineMan that is all very well, however keep in mind I did say to be wary as much can change in regards to Winter between now and December. So I am think “completely and wholly” about it. Personally, I notice the signs but dont put much stock in them. I only say theres hope this year because the science of it all (QBO, ENSO, NAO, etc) would suggest another cold winter on the way.
Absolutely FatherFrost. My post wasn’t directed at you. I’ve just noticed that some people on the forums in the past have gotten their hopes way up because they split a permission, can’t distinguish the shape, decide it’s a knife/spoon because that’s what they want to see, then get their dreams crushed when they don’t experience the coldest/snowiest winter ever. Or they see a squirrel “going crazy” in the fall after a very dry summer in which the squirrel couldn’t find enough food to feed its family, and conclude that the squirrel is getting ready for an ice age when in reality it is compensating for the fact that it’s barely eaten in the past month or two.
I enjoy looking for the signs and trying to interpret them… I like to compare them to what actually happens during the winter and then “evaluate” how accurate or inaccurate they are.
I think that some things are regional too. Take the “August fog” one for instance. Many people observe a correlation between August fog and the number of snows the following winter… there must be some credibility there. However, personally, in my region I have observed no correlation. Is it possible that this folklore holds true in many parts of the country but not up here, due to a different climate? Quite possibly… I’ll be observing again this year. Although, as I said above, we’re having fogs but they burn off very very early… just after dawn… so making evaluations this year could be difficult.
One thing I’ve been struggling with is the whole “acorn” one. I’ve always heard that oak trees put out extra acorns the year after a drought, in order to compensate for the probable lack of seed survival the year before. This year I’m seeing a ton of acorns early… but we also had a drought last year. Is the abundance of early acorns a result of the previous year, a sign of the coming winter, possibly some of both, or perhaps a third or fourth factor? Who knows… that’s what makes nature so mysterious.
I look for the signs as enjoyment, I don’t take all in for fact until it happens. Even long forecasting you have be careful because things can change.
When I am with my son and we talk about the folklore, I look at a high spiderweb and other signs and say could be a bad winter. I am give a little info on the folklore on it. It not a fact just that it could be a bad or snowy winter.
I do know like last year as even Peter from FA report there were a lot of acrons on the ground. We had a lot of crush acrons making brown dust spots all over the front of our house more than I ever seen. So far this year by nothing has started to fall yet.
I look at it for fun times to look as time pass us by and wonder if and what will winter be like.
I suspect that there is a scientific link to some of the weather folklore. For example perhaps some plants and animals in nature are more perceptible to changes in things like the ENSO, PDO, AMO, QBO etc, that may be a harbinger of a cold winter.
I just doubt many in todays world can accurately interpret them. Farmers and fisherman spent much more time outdoors than they do today and are were much more dependent on themselves than they were on the local news. 16 hour days seven days a week would lead most to be more in tune with nature. Nowadays very few spend that much time outdoors and fewer and fewer people are dependent on fishing, farming, hunting, and forestry for their incomes.
Too most of us, winter is fun and we tend to enjoy it more nowadays. For our not so distant relatives winter was not so much fun as it was stressful and the implications of a harsh winter were much more relevant than they are today.