Wolly Weather Report

Late last fall I gave a weather forecast based on the width of color bands on a Wolly Bear caterpillar. That "forecast" called for a mild winter. I promised then to give an up date. I'll give you hint about the weather--I remembered the update when I chiseled ice off the hay and saw a Wolly Bear caterpillar frozen in a chunk of ice.

Well, it's been dang cold this winter. We have had a couple of warm weekends (think 34 degrees) this winter season, we had twenty inches of snow on the first warm weekend and 1/2 inch of ice on everything on the next warm weekend. Tonight I checked the temperature before I went out to close up the barn. It's is -6 degrees with a stiff west wind.

I had originally hypothesized that the Wolly Bear gives a weather report (of fall weather) and not a prediction. Although current weather supports this, I would love to be wrong and have a mild winter and early spring.