Looking At Woolly Worms, How Bad Will Winter 2021 Be In Indiana and Kentucky?

The First Woolly Worm of the Season

Every year, I anticipate my first Wolly Worm sighting. They usually start appearing in early Fall. As a child, I learned from my Grandma M. that Woolly Worms can predict the severity of winter weather. All you have to do is look at the color of the Woolly Worm, which changes every year, to find out.

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Over the weekend, we got a chance to plant some Fall mums in our yard. As we (and by WE, I mean my husband, I merely supervise) were digging the hole in the ground for our plants, I saw that I had been waiting for, a Woolly Worm.

I saw my first one of the season. (Sunday, Sept. 26) Let's see what Winter 2021 holds for us according to the mighty and fuzzy Woolly Worm.

Do Blonde Woollies Have More Fun?

Ok, it’s ALL blonde. What does that mean?

Well, according to my grandma, the solid color Woolly worms, whether all black, blonde, or even white, means a harsh and severe winter. The Woolly worms you see with that are plack and rust striped means a miler winter.

Folklore breaks it down even further,

...folklore says that thin brown bands on the woolly worms mean a harsh winter is coming, wider brown-banded woolly worms mean a mild winter,  nearly black woolly worms means a severe winter is coming, and finally, the very light brown or white woolly worms mean a snowy winter according to the folklore.

The Farmer's Almanac Knows - It Always Knows

According to the Farmers Almanac website,

"Note that white, yellow, or other colors of fuzzy caterpillars are NOT the same type of woolly worm and are not used for weather forecasting. We’ll leave the weather-prognosticating “skills” to your own observation!"

Ok, Farmer's Almanac, I get it, there are different types of Woolly Worms that we are lumping together as far as weather prediction. But, with no disrespect, I think I'll stick with my grandmas' Woolly Worm weather prediction method. Both she and the Woolly Worm have a pretty accurate track record for being right about the winter weather.

My Grandma M. taught me how to look at nature to indicate what kind of weather was coming. She taught me how to feel and smell the rain coming and to look at the colors of sunsets to know if we needed to close our windows at night.

She would say that her ways were the ways of the Indians. They were passed down to help us know how to prepare for the night, day, or season. She loved it when her predictions were right and the weather persons were wrong. She would say, See? with a wicked, beautiful smile on her face.