While the 2019 Farmer’s Almanac promises “Teeth Chattering cold” across much of the country, it especially forecasts frigid cold for our neck of the woods.
But what do the natural signs tell us? What of Old Wives Tales?
According to several selective Old Wives Tales, there are signs of an early cold winter everywhere one looks. That is, if you believe in Old Wives Tales, which a according to a lot of old wives, are true.
Here are a few.
• When a long cold winter is coming animals’ fur grows thicker and they gain more weight coming into cold period.
That’s true at my house. My three cats and one dog are getting plumper and furrier by the minute. I’m also getting plumper by the minute and I’m blaming that on the oncoming cold, not any cold ice cream I might be consuming.
• Rodents can sense coming cold, and because they are rodents, they scurry about faster and faster, creating little whirlwinds of movement. Apparently they do this, as a way to let us non-rodents knows there is going to be lots of snow and cold coming sooner than normal.
• Squirrels gather more nuts in the fall when an early, cold winter is drawing near. I’m not sure who ever sat around counting the number of nuts a “normal” squirrel gathers versus the number of nuts a nutty squirrel hastened by early winter would gather, but it seems to be true this fall because the squirrels I see almost daily are busy collecting mouthfuls of nuts.
• Maple trees and birch trees show more vibrant colors when winter puts on a blindside rush and tackles fall, knocking fall out of the game say, in the late second quarter. That looks to be the case this year. The colors are peaking early, like the Green Bay Packers, and leaf watchers are here “peeking” at them earlier than normal, many dressed in the colors and caps of their favorite football teams.
Another sure sign of early cold, according to an old wives tale, is that mountain ash berries will hang thicker and plumper and blood-red on the trees and birds will feast and gorge on them. True, once again. I see this right outside of my living room window as a variety of birds eat voraciously on mountain ash berries.
Early winter is also said to affect bees, which prepare by making their hives thicker. Hornets and wasps do the same to their nests to insulate them from the cold. Local beekeepers say their bees are preparing for a cold winter. And although it might be none of our beeswax, we should listen to this stinging rebuke of fall that’s all abuzz in most northern beehives.
Another “Old Wives Tales” suggests the early movement of geese, like notes from Braham’s piano piece, rise through the sky and scatter heavenward amongst the stars as they vamoose to warm climates when winter comes early.
The Farmer’s Almanac weather predictions are made 18 to 24 months in advance and the authors of the almanac claim that 80 percent of their predictions have been accurate for the last 225 years.
For Duluth the almanac predicts rain and snow showers for September 26-30. More rain and snow showers are predicted for October 8-15 with a five-day warm spell to follow.
However, from October 25-31, it predicts snow showers and cold. Watch for squirrels madly collecting nuts. It looks like they are on to something.
And as for “Old Wives Tales” some seem to be silly, but those folks who spread those tales knew enough to watch nature that surrounded them, and follow the clues nature provided them. Here’s hoping you do the same.
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