Do Lots of Acorns Mean a Long Winter? Here Are 12 Myths About Winter
Updated: Oct. 28, 2019
There's some strange folklore out there about winter weather predictors.
Do a lot of acorns mean a long winter?
Is there any truth to the old saying, “Squirrels gathering nuts in a flurry will cause snow to gather in a hurry?” Well, it’s bunk—it’s only ever been a coincidence if a bad winter follows a large dropping of acorns. The same goes if there is a mild winter! It’s fun to look at weather folklore, however, so here are other myths about winter you might not know about.
Thick onion skins
Folklore claims that thicker onion skins can signal a cold and snowy winter. The old saying goes, “Onion skins very thin, mild winter coming in; onion skins thick and tough, coming winter cold and rough.” People have tried to tie what crops look like to predict the weather but what crops look like typically reflect the growing season.
These are the common full moon myths you can finally stop believing.
Woodpeckers sharing a tree
Woodpeckers typically create their own roost so if two were to share a tree it would signal something. In weather lore, two woodpeckers is supposed to mean a rough winter.
Read on to learn the most baffling mysteries about the universe.
Crickets arriving early on the hearth
An early arrival of crickets to the hearth means an early winter and crickets are widely considered to be good luck. The cricket has also been used in the past to tell the temperature because the number of chirps in 14 seconds plus 40 is supposed to equal the temperature.
Scientists are still trying to figure out these moon mysteries.
Spiders spinning large webs
“Spiders spinning larger than usual webs and entering the house in great numbers” has meant a hard winter coming in weather lore. It’s tough to say if there’s a correlation between spiders spinning large webs and a harsh winter but pests typically seek shelter in homes as the temperature drops.
Check out more elaborate spider webs found in nature.
Small orange band on woolly caterpillars
The width of a woolly caterpillar’s orange band is rumoured to be a signal of the type of winter coming. If it’s a narrow band, there will be a cold and long winter, if it’s wide, it will be a short and mild winter. Also, the thickness of the woolly caterpillar’s hair is another folklore weather indicator. If the hair is thick, it could be a harsher winter. If the hair is thin, it could be a cooler winter. The use of the woolly caterpillar to indicate weather seems to come from a study from Dr. Charles Curran back in the late 1940s when he said that the width of the orange hair predicted the type of winter with 80 percent accuracy. But his research hasn’t been duplicated in the years following.
Green leaves on trees late into fall
Trees that continue to have green leaves late into the fall has meant a long, hard winter in weather lore but it is more likely a result of a cold spell that has interrupted the process of trees shedding leaves.
Heavy shelled hickory nuts
Like an onion, a thick hickory shell is believed to mean a cold winter and a thin hickory shell means a mild winter.
Tree bark heavier on the north side of trees
If tree bark is thicker on the north part of a tree, it’s supposed to mean a cold winter though it’s hard to say where this weather lore came from and how someone could tell if the bark is thicker on one side.
Crickets in the chimney
The chimney is one area where pests like to climb in to get out of the winter cold. According to weather lore, if there are many crickets appearing in the chimney it means that it will be a cold winter.
Thick tails and bright bands on raccoons
Kind of like with the woolly caterpillar, a sign of a long, cold winter is supposed to be thick tails and bright bands on raccoons. It’s as if animals can sense a harsh winter coming in weather lore but it’s hard to find a correlation. Animals typically have a winter coat each year anyway.
Can you answer these real Jeopardy! questions about geography?
Pigs picking up sticks
Pigs have been said to predict weather through their behaviour. In weather lore they’ll gather straw or sticks in their mouth to make a nest, which is a sign cold is coming.
We’ve rounded up the science facts you never learned in school.
