An Almanac Minute: Woolly Worm

Here in the mountains of sw VA the woolies I've seen so far are predicting cold and stormy first and last of season, but relatively mild otherwise. I've been observing them for years and found them more reliable than the weatherman.

I use the size and position of the winter homes for the grey and fox squirrels, size fortels temp. extrem, and position the severity, ie. closer to the trunk of tree the more blustery the winter. Combine this information with the accumulation of fat and the urgency of food collection usually gets us a good idea of whats ahead. An old squirrel hunter.

I am in N. Florida (near Monticello) and have been seeing what I am calling woolly bears around here lately that are ALL BLACK. Are these true woolly bears? If so, we are in for a COLD winter!

The Wolley Bears were right for the winters of 1976-77 and 1977-78. I wrote the book White Death The Blizzard of '77 about these snow disasters and you can see my famous pics and hear blizzard stories at www.whitedeath.com. Beware of snowflakes.

I don't know about wooly worms,but when native ants build their mounds high you can look for a lot of wet weather

I haven't seen any wooly worms this year either and we usually see a lot crossing the roads. I live in MO. What does it mean?

Here in NW PA, we have seen several Woolly Bears that are almost all brown with just a bit of black on the tip. Last year, they had black strips at both ends with a wide brown band down the center.

I have seen several wooly worms in the last month in Mercer County NJ and they have just the tiniest bit of black on them. I'd say they are 90% brown and 10% black.

I live in maryland.the ones i have been seeing are mostly brown..indicating a mild winter...its worth mentioning though...a few winters ago in md. We had the wost winter on record...and i do honestly recall that year most of the woolys i saw were compleately black.i remember that was the first time time in my life that i had seen so many all black...and ive lived here for 30 years

I live in south central KY and the wooly worms around here indicate that we will have a milder than usual winter. However, the Almanac has forecast a much colder than usual winter. I hope the wooly worms are correct. But I will be prepared in case the Almanac is.