If our winter is going to be anything like our summer, Look out.

I saw a light brown wooly worm, tan around outter edges
what does these mean.

Note to self: Go to grocery store and buy staples that don't require refrigeration or freezer.

I heard that the dark bands are the cold snowy parts of the winter and the lighter bands are the mild part. So if he has really wide dark bands front and back it will be really cold beginning and ending with a milder stretch in the middle. Haven't seen any woolies this year at all. Wonder what that means?

The is from the Farmer's Almanac:

For the winter of 2011–12, the Farmers’ Almanac is forecasting “clime and punishment,” a season of unusually cold and stormy weather. For some parts of the country, that means a frigid climate; while for others, it will mean lots of rain and snow.

The upcoming winter looks to be cold to very cold for the Northern Plains, parts of the Northern Rockies, and the western Great Lakes. In contrast, above-normal temperatures are expected across most of the southern and eastern U.S. Near-normal temperatures are expected in the Midwest and Far West, and in southern
Florida.

A very active storm track will bring much heavier-than-normal precipitation from the Southern Plains through Tennessee into Ohio, the Great Lakes, and the Northeast. Because of above normal temperatures, much of the precipitation will likely be rain or mixed precipitation, although, during February, some potent East Coast storms could leave heavy snow, albeit of a wet and slushy consistency.

An active Pacific Storm track will guide storm systems into the Pacific Northwest, giving it a wetter-than-normal winter.

Drier-than-normal weather will occur in the Southwest and Southeast corners of the nation.

Our "Mountain Ash" tree is usually always right on the money.

The tree's berries started to blush in JUNE. Then they turned full red about a month early and that means early winter.

Oddly.. our spider fall rush is not near as bad as usual, but that sure doesn't break my heart. Nothing like walking out the front door in the morning RIGHT THROUGH a nasty web. Gad.. I just HATE THAT...lol

I live in central PA. Just south of me, in Center County, they had snow flurries over the weekend & also west of me. We barely hit 50 over the wekeend with nights in the low 40's. It's been raining for days.

So far I've only seen one wooly worm & it was almost all black. The center brown band was very narrow. The deer are also turning a very dark brown, which can also mean a bad winter. I'm not looking forward to this, as many areas here will still have roads & bridges closed due to the massive floods we had in early September. We had almost 16 inches of rain in September alone. I'm glad it wasn't snow.

I still have 2 juvenile hummingbirds hanging out. They're staying in my very large honeysuckle bush. The poor things sit all puffed up not far from the feeder. I'm hoping they'll soon migrate, as I don't want them to stay over winter. If they do stay it will take allot of work on my part to keep them alive until spring.

I'm hoping for at least a semi-wet winter, but I have a feeling that it's not going to happen. (I hope to be wrong)

I have seen a handful and there is a difference of opinion among the worms. Some have a wide brown stripe meaning mild winter and some are almost all black meaning a hard winter. Even the worms can't agree this year!

I've noticed in the years here that we don't have alot of really hot (100 degree) weather then we have colder winters and more snow; like last year. It's already in the 50's which is low for us already. I'm making my last trip to WV this year until after Easter; not taking chances on snow in the mountains. It's beautiful but not if you are traveling.