Snow Lore: 15 Folk Signs That Point to a Snowy Winter
Will it snow? Here are some signs from nature you may want to look for.
Quick Reference
- Famous rule: For every fog in August, one snowfall the following winter.
- Animal signs: Tall ant hills, busy squirrels, high hornet’s nests, deep muskrat holes.
- Weather sign: Six weeks after September’s last thunderstorm, the first snow.
- Sky sign: A halo around the moon: rain or snow soon.
- Lunar sign: The age of the moon at first snow equals the number of snowfalls before planting season.
Winter means snow, and farmers used to need to know how much. A long, cold, snowy winter changed how much wood to cut, how much hay to keep, and which crops would do best the following summer. Today, many readers check snow lore against our extended forecast to see whether nature agrees with the Almanac. Each year when we publish our 20 Signs of a Hard Winter, readers send us their own snow predictions: persimmon seed shapes, woolly bear stripes, animal coat thickness. With winter approaching, the question is always: how much snow are we going to get? Here is the snow lore the Almanac has carried since 1818.
The Classic Snow Lore List
- As many days old as is the Moon on the first snow, there will be that many snowfalls by crop planting time.
- If ant hills are high in July, winter will be snowy.
- If the first week in August is unusually warm, the coming winter will be snowy and long.
- The first snowfall comes six weeks after the last thunderstorm in September.
- For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall the following winter.
- Squirrels gathering nuts in a flurry will cause snow to gather in a hurry.
- As high as the weeds grow, so will the bank of snow.
- A green Christmas = a white Easter.
- If the first snowfall lands on unfrozen ground, winter will be mild.
- If there is thunder in winter, it will snow seven days later.
- See how high the hornet’s nest, ’twill tell how high the snow will rest.
- The higher muskrats’ holes are on the riverbank, the higher the snow will be.
- A halo ’round the moon means ’twill rain or snow soon.
- Mushrooms galore, much snow in store. No mushrooms at all, no snow will fall.
- The day of the month on which the first snowstorm comes gives the number of storms you can expect in the following winter.
The Science Behind a Few of These
Some snow lore rests on real ecology. Squirrels gathering nuts in a hurry usually means an early autumn temperature drop, which often signals a colder winter. High hornet nests off the ground correlate with insects responding to a wet spring and summer, which can also mean a snowy winter. A halo around the moon is light refracting through ice crystals in high cirrus clouds, which often run ahead of a warm front with rain or snow within 24 hours. The lunar age rule is harder to test, but it has been carried in American farm calendars since the 1800s.
Snow Lore by Region
| Region | Local sign worth watching |
|---|---|
| New England | Wasp nests built high. Squirrels storing nuts before Labor Day. |
| Appalachia | Persimmon seed shapes. Thick black bands on the woolly bear caterpillar. |
| Great Lakes | Geese flying south early. Heavy acorn fall in oak country. |
| Plains | Cattle grow heavier winter coats earlier than normal. |
| Pacific Northwest | Heavy fall rain often precedes a heavy mountain snowpack. |
| Canadian Prairies | Beavers gather more cuttings, raise lodges higher. |
Does Snow Lore Actually Work?
Most of these rules have not been tested under controlled conditions, and some are likely coincidence preserved by selective memory. That said, snow lore survived for 200 years because rural readers depended on it. The strongest rules tend to involve animals reacting to seasonal cues that humans miss: an early shift in squirrel behavior, deeper muskrat dens, higher hornet nests. The weakest rules tend to be the strictly numeric ones, like counting fogs day-for-day. The Almanac respects all of them, publishes them, and lets readers decide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most famous snow lore rule?
“For every fog in August, there will be a snowfall the following winter.” It is the snow rule most commonly repeated in American farm folklore and survives in printed almanacs going back to the early 1800s.
Do animals really know if winter will be hard?
They respond to late-summer and early-fall cues that often correlate with the kind of winter ahead. Earlier nut-gathering in squirrels, heavier coats on cattle, higher hornet nests, all reflect animals reacting to weather signals humans tend to miss. None of these is a controlled experiment, but the patterns have been documented for centuries.
What does “six weeks after the last September thunderstorm” mean?
The folklore says the first snowfall in your region arrives six weeks after September’s last thunderstorm. The rule has held up well enough in Mid-Atlantic and Midwest farm diaries to keep being passed down, though the timing varies by latitude.
Does the Farmers’ Almanac use snow lore in its forecast?
No. The Almanac respects the lore and publishes it, but our long-range forecast comes from a mathematical and astronomical formula refined since 1818. We do not count fogs, squirrels, or wasp nests when we make our predictions.
How can I use these signs in my own yard?
Pick two or three signs that apply to your region, write them on the kitchen calendar, and check them through the fall. Treat any single sign as a guess. Three signs pointing the same direction is a working forecast.
Where can I read more winter folklore?
See 20 Signs of a Hard Winter for the full catalog, plus December weather lore and hurricane weather lore.
Related
Caleb Weatherbee
Caleb Weatherbee is the official forecaster for the Farmers' Almanac. His name is actually a pseudonym that has been passed down through generations of Almanac prognosticators and has been used to conceal the true identity of the men and women behind our predictions.
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My grandfather always pointed out a “Snow Sun” to me. The full sun has a mysterious glare to it the day before a snowstorm. It proved true today. Again!
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I was always told whatever day the first snow that is how many measurable snows you are going to have. Our first was on 28th..we have had 25 snows, 2 ice with another forecast before the weekend.
I was told if a cat can see its footprints in the first snow storm, that date would predict the number of bad storms with large amounts of snow.
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My great grandmother said, Thunder in January (or February, forget which) snow in May. In the St. Louis snow storm of 85 or 86, it thundered, and in May there was still snow on the ground. Not sure if that counts for lore to be true, but I found it interesting.
My mother grew up in the 1930’s inTennessee and would say the fire is tromping snow when the fire made a a regular, whooshing sound. I never heard any weather connections. It was just a sound presumably caused by the wind across the chimney.
hi
Old mountain saying: the fire is tromping snow. My granny in the North Georgia mountains used this when sparkles ignited in the air outside of the wood heater, just after opening the door to replenish wood. These just happened in central Mississippi. We’ll see if snow follows. It is predicted for us.
Handed down, over many generations: “If you see the birds a flockin’, in six weeks the snow comes a knockin’.” I’m usually pretty amazed by how accurate that ends up being. This was from a southern Minnesota perspective for forecasting the first snow of the year.
What is the first date of snowfall for 2017?
My born & raised Bostonian Mom always said, “When it snows like sand, it will cover the land. If it’s big as a feather, it won’t last forever.” Works EVERY time!