I SEEN A HUGE BLACK CATAPILLER. DOES THIS MEAN WE WILL HAVE A BAD WINTER. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT KIND OF WINTER WE WILL HAVE? BLESSINGS KELLY

-- KELLY (MILKGOATS12@AOL.COM), August 18, 2000

Answers

Generally speaking, big black catapillers only mean one thing: Well fed birds. Your guess is as good as any on the issue of weather prediction. The chaos theory makes it to difficult to predict except in generalities at that level, except to Dr. Laura, who appearently knows everything and always has. They predicted drought here in NC this summer and what we've gotten since Jan. has been labled by locals as our first real monsoon season in years. Go fig.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), August 18, 2000.

PREDICTING LOCAL WEATHER BY WOOLEY BEAR CATERPILLARS

When wooley bears hatch from the egg, they are black. With every growth shedding, the red band in their middle is wider. By the time they are ready to pupate they have turned completely red. Their color is not a predictor of weather, but of their age.

To predict the severety of the coming winter, you observe the thickness and length of their wool, compared to previous years. Caterpillars with thin hair and showing alot of skin predict a mild winter. Heavy coats predict a severe winter.

Of course this is only relative to what your region considers mild or severe. I am sure my wooley bears look much different from those found in North Dakota.

-- Laura (gsend@hotmail.com), August 19, 2000.

My livestock tell me what winter is gonna be like. Altho it's 90's - 100: in August, if it's gonna be a cold winter, they're haired up thick by this time.

Last winter, we had only one night hit freezing. If we don't have 3 nights go down to 32:, all the crawlies don't die and there's zillions more the coming season.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), August 19, 2000.

Hey Kell! Ain't ALL winters bad? Of course it depends on how you look at it. I kinda like the quietness and solitude of those cold winter nights and days. Smellin wood smoke on a cold winter day as it slowly and gently weaves its way toward heaven--nuff to almost make you cry. Leaves rustlin in the autumn breeze, geese honkin noisly as they head south and of course the bazillion blackbirds all yappin at once as they fly over the house for what seems an eternity. Yeah! Believe I'll just set in my old porch swing and count my many Blessings from the One who gave me life. Bad Winter? Nah-don't rekon so. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot (hoot@pcinetwork.com), August 20, 2000.

I have feeling winter will be bad. don't ask me why. when my knee and my husband's shoulder starts aching we know bad weather is around the corner.

-- Amber (ambrosia75_@hotmail.com), August 20, 2000.

Awwh Hoot, you just made me feel all warm and cozy. I love winter! Good thing I live in Wisconsin. Tami in WI

-- Tami Bowser (windridg@chorus.net), August 20, 2000.

I had a weather wisdom thread on here several months ago, didn't get very many responses. There's a book called "Weather Wisdom" by Albert Lea. If you can find it, you can learn about predicting weather. I used to do better than the meterologists. Remember that all sign fail in draught and flood. Personally I'd love to have a cold winter, maybe kill off a few million bugs. And sit by the wood burning stove with my husband, watching the snow falling, eating homemade soup and bread, I'm such a romantic.:-)

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), August 21, 2000.

Hey hoot! Ya forgot about sitting on the porch swing in cozy flannels sipping soup and watching the snow fall! heaven!

-- Misha (MishaaE@aol.com), August 21, 2000.

From what I keep hearing about home heating oil and natural gas costs going up, I hope we don't have a real cold winter. Electricity is also going up b/c of deregulation. A lot of poor folk would have a hard time paying double or even triple in some cases for their fuel.

We have been getting firewood in for the last couple of months, plus soon it will be time to clean the chimneys again. I'm glad we have a couple of nice wood stoves. Fall is just around the corner...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), August 21, 2000.

Based on the fact that we had a very wet and cool (for us anyway) summer here in Virginia, I think my area is going to have a cold and snowy winter. We don't usually get much snow and most of the winter it stays above freezing except for a week or two in January and/or February. Since our temperatures were below normal for summer I think they will continue to be so for this winter. I'm going to prepare for it anyway and hope I am pleasantly surprised to find it isn't a bad one.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), August 22, 2000.

Colleen is correct and we are bracing for a deep snow winter here in the mountains of Virginia. Already we have had two nights in the 40's and I feel like I'm in Montana. I use a crickett in a matchbox to predict weather. When I opened it in July, I was shocked to see him laying there with a ticket to Miami !

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), August 23, 2000.

this is the first time i remember buying heat lamps in augest! maryland in augest is gross, humid hot and sticky not now,we wear sweatshirts to do morning chores! my dogs are not pantting and the cats are looking for the sunshine,i am worried. we have had soooo much rain alot of outdoor tasks have not gotten done and we are all so bored sitting inside. i hate the winter winds and the below freezing temps., snow is ok, as long as i can find the door to the shed. i guess time will tell.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), August 23, 2000.

I like it here in N. AL. We only get 2 weeks of "real" winter, but is it a doozy. people standing in line at grocery stores and buying up kerosene. I like our lifestyle now, the only line I stand in is at the ABC store to get my jug of sippin' stuff before the roads shut down.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 25, 2000.