Winter Ahead

I don't know how it is in the rest of the world, but in America, there are two accurate ways of predicting the weather: Listening to the forecasts of a trained and educated meteorologist, and seeing how your Uncle Eugene's knee is doing.

It's stunning, how many of us eschew the words of people who have studied weather and climate forecasting and prepare detailed reports for us, which they present around the clock on television, and put their faith in old husband's tales. They say that when you see pigs gathering sticks and woodpeckers sharing the same tree, that means to keep the snow shovel handy and the hatches battened down.  

The Farmers' Almanac says that when you see this - one Woody moving into Apartment A, and another moving above him into the penthouse, that means we're going to have a harsh winter. These two pileated woodpeckers are just beginning to make this tree a duplex.

Or you might have that guy down the street who says to look at the next woolly bear caterpillar you see, and the wider his orange stripe is, the milder the winter ahead will be. You can take your time watching him; he doesn't move fast.

I actually feel sorry for the men and women who have devoted their lives to the scientific study of weather, only to have their voices drowned out in the chorus of people claiming that it's going to rain all weekend because Uncle Nutsy's goiter is acting up again.

Then there's the Farmers’ Almanac, which annually prints "The 20 Signs of a Hard Winter Ahead.” Their winter 2023-24 forecast  predicts “traditional cool temperatures and snowy weather conditions” will return. Here in the Northeast/ Mid-Atlantic, we can expect “lots of rain/sleet and snowstorms to contend with.”

In other words, hold on to your hopes, fellow snow lovers, but don't put your tank tops and shorts too deep in your storage!

Some of the harbingers of lots of snow and sleet include: 

• Thicker than normal onions and corn husks
• Woodpeckers sharing a tree
• Snowy owls arriving early, geese and ducks leaving early and Monarch butterflies migrating early
• The hair on the nape of a cow’s neck is thicker than usual, raccoons have thick tails and bright bands
• Heavy and frequent fog in August
• The “early arrival of crickets on the hearth”
• Pigs gathering sticks
• Ants marching in a line
• Early seclusion of bees in the hive
• An abundance of acorns and squirrels gathering them earlier than usual
• Muskrats burrowing holes high on a river bank
• High hornet nests “will tell how high the snow will rest”
• “Frequent halos or rings around the sun or moon” indicate “numerous snowfalls”
• And of course, the absence of milk, bread, and toilet paper on store shelves is the sure sign.