Our first winter in New Hampshire was mild last year… so mild that we wondered what all the fuss was about severe New England weather.  We’ve been told by locals to ‘brace yourselves’ for a real winter this year.

Weather predictions call for more snow this year. But with our very own barometers in the garden, maybe we can substantiate or dispute that prediction. The Old Farmer’s Almanac states that, according to folklore, that one can predict how much snow and cold the season will have by the ratio of black to orange or brown banding on Woolly Bear caterpillars. The narrower the area of orange, the more snow and winter weather we will have.

This fella is almost all orange! Maybe, just maybe, we can slip by with another mild winter!

The new almanac does call these Woolly Bear weather predictions just legends. It adds that an entomologist states the color bands do tell about a heavy winter or early spring, but it’s for the previous winter. Interesting…..