1. My late father always told me that the average temperature in Indiana didn't vary by more than a couple of degrees. Which means if you have a hot summer, you are going to have a cold winter.
2. The dreaded black wooly worm has appeared here locally. I have been watching those caterpillars since I was a kid. Sometimes they are all brown, sometimes brown with black stripes. When they are ALL BLACK, trouble's brewing. The last time I remember all-black wooly worms was in 1978, the year of the Great Blizzard.
I live out where the tanks were yanking cars out of the snowpiles, if you remember that.
Four inches can turn into four feet, overnight, but you can see twisters coming from a looooonnnnnggg way off.
I've been in Texas for 25 years, but I was going to school at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1978. It took me 24 hours to get from Chicago to Carbondale by train at the end of Christmas break. I took a cab from the train station to the dorm and it started to snow in Carbondale on the ride. Didn't stop for the next three days. I remember the Great Blizzard of 1978 very, very well.
It was a helluva lot of fun once I was in C'dale, but that train trip and the night in the train station in Homewood with the temperature -25 was from hell.
Dear Lord - don't make it so! Except, I remember it as the Great Blizzard of '77. I had an 8-week old baby and husband was 150 miles away on a job and couldn't get home. Horrible wind and howled like a banshee 24/7. Never been so scared in my life. Tied a clothesline around my waist from hubbies workbench to go get firewood (snow up to my chest), and zero visibility, even in the yard. Took Army Corps of Engrs. to dig us out 8 days later. But, I heard the people at the ski resort across the way had a great time, ate & drank them out of everything and skiied some great powder once the winds died down.
I do NOT want to go thu that again, thank you very much! But, the caterpillars rule........ I intend to stock up more than usual this season. Thanks for the info.
Prayers for all those in Rita's way...
I haven't seen any yet, but here a couple of links. The first details weather folklore predictors.
The second comes from the Old Farmers Almanac and details the reletively modern folklore of the wooly worm.