Mild winter ahead, wooly worm said on The Murfreesboro Post

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Mild winter ahead, wooly worm said

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Sunday, October 19, 2008 8:17 am

The verdict is in and all evidence points to a mild winter.

“I believe, as weather lore predictors suggest, that we are going to have a mild winter with average temperatures,” said Dewayne Trail, UT/TSU Extension agent and winter weather lore expert.

Although the Farmer’s Almanac said otherwise, Trail is certain this winter will be mild. He based his prediction on a variety of indicators, but mostly it was the official winter weather forecaster – the wooly worm, also called a woolly bear or fuzzy bear.

“Weather lore suggests that winter will be bad if the wooly worms have heavy hair coats, lots are seen crawling around, their movement is unusually slow and if their black bands are wider than the orange, rust colored bands,” Trail said.

This year the wooly worm population has been conspicuous in its absence.

“As a general rule, by this time of year wooly worms are crawling around and I haven’t seen one wooly worm yet,” Trail said. “That’s another indication that the winter is not going to be that harsh.”

The second main predictor – the first killing frost – has also been absent of yet, pointing again to a mild winter, Trail said, adding the later the frost, the milder the winter.

Rutherford County gets its first killing frost around Oct. 22.

“Of course we haven’t had even a little frost to date and the 7-day forecast doesn’t show temperatures that will give us a frost,” Trail said.

Trail also checked a persimmon seed by cutting it in half from the narrow side and looking at the kernel.

“If the kernel is shaped like a knife, look for a cold, windy winter. If the kernel is shaped like a spoon, look for a wet, snowy winter,” Trail explained, last year. “If the kernel is shaped like a fork, look for a mild winter.”

This year the kernel had a spoon shape, meaning we may see some snow this winter.

Trail also looked at:
- Average corn husk thickness suggests winter will not be bad.
- Fewer spiders sightings in the fall suggests winter will not be bad.
- A poor berry crop on hollies suggests winter will not be bad.
- The spoon shape seen in the kernel of a persimmon seed (coupled with a few fog sightings in August) suggests there will be some winter snow.

In all the weather lore suggests a relatively mild winter.

“No doubt, there will be some cold weather to include a few scattered days with below freezing temperatures and a few light snows; however, average winter temperatures will prevail,” Trail said.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under WEATHER

Member Opinions:

By: Flo on 10/19/08
burrrrrrrrr ~
But it sure is chilly this morning!
1)Took my jacket out of the closet
2)I know that I will need to wear pantyhose tomorrow!
3)Turned on the heat for the first time (after changing the air filters!)
4)Am about to start up a batch of Chicken Soup
Sure signs of cold weather!

By: MagsOMolly on 10/19/08
Hmm... I've been seeing wooly worms all over the place! And man are there a lot of nuts this year! My grandmother always said that if there were lots of nuts on the ground then we've have a hard, cold winter.

By: barrettbear on 10/19/08
With all this technology, I really doubt anyone and I mean anyone can really predict what will happen. There is not a promise for the second here on this earth. This is why I say, I doubt anyone can predict the future of the weather.