Woolly Bears are of course the most reliable forecasters of the coming winter.
The broader the black band, the tougher the conditions will be.
So I was darn pleased to see this fellow, telling us it will be a really mild season.
I was thinking about what to call our little furry weather predictors.
I guess you could call them “palmists” because we like to gently pick them up, and hold them in our palms, to see them roll themselves into a ball like a tiny hedgehog.
But we couldn’t say “soothsayers,” because they never say anything.
They communicate their predictions by how they’re dressed. Not such a crazy idea – if the weatherperson on TV appears in hipboots & sou’wester, it’s pretty easy to interpret, just like the woolly bears, so we might need a a word for this.
Someone predicting warm weather, by wearing stripes, you could go with SeersuckerSoothShow-er.
But HypothermiApparelAugur is too clunky, as is ClothClairvoyanGlacé.
Snowsuit Sibyl isn’t too bad.
Meteorlogifashionista is my best effort, trips right off the tongue, doesn’t it.
Please let me know if you come up with something good!
UpState & Away - - - - Waterlooseneca.com 
I didn’t know about those. Let’s hope they’re right.
Have a great weekend,
Pit
Thanks Pit, you too. It might be the other way around, and the bigger brown band means lots of snow.
The accuracy of our local weather forecast is so poor that a woolly bear would be a better long-term weather man.
Hi Peter – I don’t know if anyone takes any of these predictions seriously, but I do know some folks who put a lot of stock in The Farmers’ Almanac.
Hi. Whatever the creature is called, I hope its prediction is right.
Hi Neil, these guys are very reliable. Unless I have it backwards, and the broad brown band means a long stretch of snow.
Frustratingly, I often see them in my woodpile in a variety of fashions. I’m more inlined to trust my bunion.
Well, that sounds very scientific also 😊
I like this forecast. The Farmers Almanac is saying we are in for an early and severe winter. So I’m going to go with your Uber fashionista.
Thank you, Anne, yes let’s definitely go with the caterpillar on this.
I, for one, welcome our new Wooly Bear overlords… especially if they can predict the weather!
Also, I have read elsewhere on the interweb that their fur can be used to make coats… bad news for the animal fur trade, I suppose, but good news for the Vegans!
Haha that’s the spirit, Dale. Not really sure how they’ll communicate their orders, I guess they’ll evolve into bar codes. Was there an estimate on how many you need for a coat? I guess the great thing is you don’t need to kill anything, just get them trained to hang on to your sweater.
I didn’t see any estimates; it’s a relatively new fashion technology so I guess some couturists (!!) are still working that out.
“Train them to hang onto your sweater” … lol, crack me up. I imagine that also means they can move around and generate a little heat if there’s an extra chill in the air.
I think this sounds like a great Fashion concept, except eventually you would have moths in your closet.
Yeah, that might happen, but only in the spring. If you don’t rustle them too much then they’ll turn back into fuzzy caterpillars just in time for winter.
Yup, pretty sure that’s how it’ll work…..
Haha, Dale, yep, sounds like a plan.
It is a skeptic’s truth:
Woolly bears say no sooth;
These larvae in their brownish vestments
In auguring make no investments.
That’s great! How long did it take you to think of this?
The first two lines popped into my head right away. The second couplet took a couplet of minutes.
It’s real poetry, not doggerel, I bet a lot of people would think it was a traditional English adage.
Depending on the forecast they could indeed be called soothsayers, as their prognostication could be considered soothing.
Hi Dave, so glad to hear from you! And that’s a good point, telling us about a mild winter is indeed soothing, hope they’re right.
Sadly I can’t top meteorologifashionista. We lost our favorite evening news forecaster recently. Craig was quite a dresser and on top of that he introduced “Paws with Craig”, a new cute pet photo that he showed at the end of each broadcast. . Now you’ve made me cry.
Oh dear I’m sorry.
Well, there was the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman, so maybe the caterpillars could become the Woolly Bully Weathercrawlers. Instead of a news feed across the bottom of the tv screen, we could have the WB Weathercrawlers make their way across the screen to the sounds of Woolly Bully, and the audience could figure out the forecast for themselves by the way the Woolly Bears were dressed.
Haha great, Linda, I love it!
I like “Wooly Bears “ best somehow. But the Sibyl one is good too. Sigh, hope you’re enjoying the changing seasons and getting your camera out for some good weekend day hikes mister! I look forward to seeing what you find.
Thanks Bill. Not sure how much I’ll be getting out, but hope the smokiness out your way has abated for autumn.
Oh no! Sorry to hear that, the not-getting-out part…thanks for the smokey note, we were basically untouched by that this year, thankfully. And man it’s been raining like hell off and on for a week now, that’s put an end to any fires in the Cascades I reckon!
Yeah, just crazy busy but I hope to take some time off in October or November. That’s actually good to hear about all the rain, at least one place on the West Coast that’s not in flames. My relatives in northern Utah tell me, they can’t see the mountains on the other side of the Cache Valley, because of smoke from Californian fires.
God love the rain…looking forward to when you can ease off in the coming weeks and things settle down for you!
Thanks Bill!