Before the days of the internet, television, and radio people relied on watching nature and the sky to predict what the weather might be like on a given day. Some people still believe that this can be a reliable way to determine if we will have a hard winter, when to plant crops, etc.. So if your one of the believers in weather folklore here are a few sayings that might interest you and might predict if we will have a hard winter. Have you seen any of these signs?
*If squirrels hide their nuts at the base of a tree or inside a fallen log, there will be little or no snow during the winter. If they store their nuts inside a hallow tree, there will be a hard winter
*It’s going to be a long, hard winter when grapes mature too early, blackberries have lots of blooms, sweet potatoes have tough skins, corn has thick silks or extra-heavy husks, root vegetables grow deeper than usual, and watermelons have too many seeds.
*There will be a cold winter when the autumn sumac leaves are redder than usual.
*When trees have heavier bark on the north side of the trunk, there will be a lot of drifting snow during the winter.
*A pale moon with bright stars in Autumn means frost.
*When hornets build their nests close to the ground, it’s going to be a bad winter.
*When spiders spin their webs on the southside of the barn, it’s going to be a bad winter.
*It was said that pigs could “see the windâ€. They used to say, “When pigs squeal in winter, there will be a blizzard. When pigs carry sticks it will rain, and when they lie in the mud, there will be a dry spell.â€
*Watch the woolly caterpillar. The thicker his coat, the colder the winter will be. If there is a wide brown band between two black bands, the winter won’t be so bad. If it doesn’t have a brown band, the winter will be severe.
*When teeth, bones, joints, muscles, sinuses and even bunions ache it’s a sign of bad weather.
*You can tell what the winter weather will be by cutting open a persimmons seed. If the shape inside the seed resembles a fork, it will be a light winter. If there is a knife, it will be cutting cold. And if there is a spoon, there will be heavy snowfall; the spoon indicates lots of shoveling.