What are some of your telltale signs that it's gonna be a bad winter...? Do they even matter anymore...?

[FirstLight]

I noticed the squirrels dropping the green pinecones in the yard last week... a full month earlier than usual. Saw the geese doing formation flying this morning, they usually practice for the big long haul migration...

Looks like we could be in for a doozy. We got a hum-dinger of a winter about 2 years ago, almost knocked the whole awning off the front of the house, we were buried under more than 30'..!! The final count for Tahoe for the season was something crazy like over 100'. Broke all the records since they started measuring.
Then last year, it was more like the 'global warming' winter...rain at Lake Level, snow in the higher elevations. (I don't mind, no shoveling!)

Do you guys have any benchmarks you watch for in the fall to try and suss out the upcoming winter? Or has Climate change made it impossible to predict? How much do you pay attention to the Farmer's Almanac...and have they been on point the past few years?

[Ocelot II]

1. The stripes on woolly-bear caterpillars are said to be a sign - haven't seen any of those guys lately.

They are the larvae of the Isabella tiger moth. The belief is that if the brown stripe is wide, winter weather will be mild, and if it's narrow, the winter will be severe, but there's no scientific basis for the belief. We used to find these caterpillars fairly often, though, and make our winter predictions. But since this is Minnesota, the winters always suck anyhow.

[Walleye]

2. I'm sure it's just a myth. But one year I saw those caterpillars with very small stripes and some of them with no stripe

And we had a terrible winter that year

[FirstLight]

3. awwww...

are they the ones that sting? I think anything like that in CA has pointy parts!

Love the caption BTW heading left... make me think of Snagglepuss "Exit, staaaaage right!"

[Walleye]

4. Here in Delaware if we had a heavy snow by Thanksgiving or early in December

It was going to be a bad winter. But it is getting very difficult to predict, and I remember one year we got snow by Thanksgiving and the rest of the year was mild so, you know

[FirstLight]

5. used to be we got hit by mid October, mayyybey a little weak thru Christmas...

Then the big stuff hit in January and March... we'd have a false spring and then it would drag into May-June... we really don't thaw in the high country till Late June! lol Then it gets dry fast...

[mike_c]

6. when the 110+ heat hasn't broken before October

Folks in central Arizona think about winter differently than folks up north.

[FirstLight]

9. I hear ya...

Believe me, I'd love to be a typical snowbird and run down there for Dec-April... Someday I'll sell the homestead and get me a house on wheels

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Birds start going S earlier than usual. We live in the Mississippi Valley (STLMO), so we see the numerous

migrating flocks of birds flying S (and then N coming back) every year. They seem to know when a bad winter is coming by migrating earlier than usual. That is the one thing I do enjoy here in the city, is that we'll hear (and see) all through the fall and/or spring flocks of birds (all kinds too) flying back and forth.

[FirstLight]

8. I bet! ...a birder's dream!

I know most of our local ones by sound now. That's when I catch the migrators I hear a new one and go looking!

[SWBTATTReg]

10. Yes, it's really neat. I'll see flocks of storks, geese, ducks, and numerous other birds, and seeing the

odd flocks such as storks w/ their long legs flying over, is so neat. The variety, even over the metro STLMO area is just amazing.