Signs That Could Point to a Long Winter

Before all the technology. Before the meteorologists, Before the radar weather. Before all the tools that help us to to forecast the weather, what were the tools that were used to predict the upcoming season?

Our fathers, their fathers, and many ancestors before used signs to help make weather predictions for the upcoming seasons. They weren't scientific, or were they?

If you go back and collect those signs that were used to help predict a harsh upcoming winter, you may surprised at their accuracy.

Here's a few of them compiled by Cleveland weather guru, Dick Guthrie. Guthrie had these signs posted in the Farmers' Almanac.

--For farmers, a tell-tale sign of a harsh upcoming winter was thicker-than-usual corn husks. Depending how how thick or thin the skins were would give you an indication. This would also work with the skin on onions.

--Fog in August. Another sign of a harsh winter would be the number of fogs in August. According to folklore the number of fogs during the month would mean how many snowfalls that winter.

--Ants traveling in a straight line instead of wandering on their way.

--The size of the wooly worm caterpillar's orange band. Once again going back to the folklore listed in the farmersalmanac.com article, a thinner band of orange meant a snowier winter. If the woolly worm caterpillars fuzz is thicker than usual, get ready for a very cold one.

Finally, one that I've heard of through the years was the persimmon seed. Cut it open. You want to use a ripe seed. When you slice it open, if you see a fork, it should be a mild winter. If it's a spoon you see, get ready for lots of snow. If this inside of the persimmon is shaped like a knife, get ready for a cold winter. It's said it will "cut like a knife."

So have you seen any of these tell-tale signs?