How Hard will the Winter Be?

The Farmer's Almanac has predicted a harder than normal winter for most of the U.S. Since moving to the Ozarks, I've noticed that more people talk about the supposedly natural indicators about what kind of a winter we will have. When I was in Kansas City, the sight of more wooly worms earlier in the fall indicated a rough one. Then there's the old standby of the persimmon seed. According to the Farmer's Almanac, Open it up and "a knife shape will indicate a cold icy winter (where wind will cut through you like a knife). A fork shape indicates a mild winter. A spoon shape stands for a shovel to dig out the snow."

Others we've heard since becoming Mountain People include the winter coats that deer acquire. "Last year, the deer were almost all gray from their winter coats," my husband noted last week. We both thought we had kind of a rough winter last year, with the ice and snow that knocked our power out more than once, but others have said it wasn't bad - especially given the fact that the insects this summer have been terrible.

A new piece of folklore we heard is about the amount of fog. If there is an unusual amount of fog present in August, it indicates a tough winter ahead.
We seem to have had a lot of that this month and given the limited visibility in the Mountains this morning, I'm wondering if we should get busy on getting that woodpile into shape for firewood.

If you know anymore folk tales about the weather, feel free to comment and post your own!