Weather Signs

Before Doppler Radar and modern weather forecasting tools, people watched for signs around them to forecast the weather. Here are some that I found in my Foxfire Books:

It will be a bad winter if:

Animal Signs
~squirrels start gathering nuts early
~beaver lodges have more logs
~fur or hair on animals is thicker than normal
~crows gather early
~screech owls sound like women crying
~Birds huddle on the ground

Insect signs
~Hornets and yellow jackets build their nest heavier and closer to the ground
~there are a lot of spiders, frost worms and black bugs in the fall
~crickets are in the chimney
~the woolly worm the black band is wide on his back

Plant signs
~blackberry blooms are especially heavy
~grapes, cockleburrs and apples mature early
~carrots grow deeper
~hickory nuts have a heavy shell

Weather signs
~a late frost means a bad winter
~if the first snow stays on the ground for three days, another snow will come to top it
~a long hot summer means a long cold winter, the hotter the summer the colder the winter
~if frost comes before November 23 it will be a bad winter

Moon Signs
The number of days old the moon is at the frost snow tells how many snows will be that winter

It will rain if:
~cows are lying down in the pasture
~if there is a ring around the moon
~if the sun sets in clouds
~if birds fly low
~if earthworms come to the surface of the ground

Other Weather sayings
If it rains before 7 am it will quit before 11 am

If it rains on Easter Sunday, it will rain every Sunday for seven weeks

The first 12 days after Christmas will indicate what each month in the next year will be like

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Are you seeing any weather signs were you are?