Foretelling Or Summation

There has been a lot of talk here in my neck of the woods about woolly bear caterpillars. Over the last month we have been seeing a larger than average number of the critters as they inch their way along, or hang on various limbs, or are curled up in little balls as they rest.

According to weather.gov

Woolly Bear Folklore:

According to folklore, the amount of black on the woolly bear in autumn varies proportionately with the severity of the coming winter in the locality where the caterpillar is found.  The longer the woolly bear’s black bands, the longer, colder, snowier, and more severe the winter will be.  Similarly, the wider the middle brown band is associated with a milder upcoming winter.  The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest or hardest.  If the head end of the caterpillar is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe.  If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. In addition, the woolly bear caterpillar has 13 segments to its body, which traditional forecasters say correspond to the 13 weeks of winter.

As with most folklore, there are 2 other versions to this story.  The first one says that the woolly bear caterpillar’s coat will indicate the upcoming winter’s severity.  So, if its coat is very woolly, it will be a cold winter.  The final version deals with the woolly bear caterpillar’s direction of travel of the worms.  It is said that woolly bear’s crawling in a southerly direction are trying to escape the cold winter conditions of the north.  On the other hand, woolly bear’s crawling on a northward path would indicate a mild winter.

The popularity of the woolly bear caterpillar has resulted in several festivals honoring them.  Since 1973, the residents of Vermilion, Ohio have held an annual “Woolly Bear Festival“.  The festival is the brainchild of legendary Cleveland TV personality Dick Goddard, longtime weatherman at WJW-TV.  It is claimed to be the largest one-day festival in Ohio.  Festivities include a parade, woolly bear races and an “official” analysis of the woolly bears and forecast for the coming winter.  Also, every 3rd weekend in October the annual Woolly Worm Festival is held in Banner Elk, NC.  They begin their worm races around 10:20 AM, or as soon as the first heat, on Saturday morning.  Races continue all day until the grand final about 4 PM when the champion worm and trainer is crowned (and paid!).  At that time, the official winter forecast will be declared.  Sunday worm races are for fun and small prizes and will continue throughout the day as long as there are race participants.  Other festivals are held in Beattyville, KY (began in 1987); Lewisburg, PA (began in 1997); Oil City; PA (began in 2008); and Lion’s Head, Ontario (began in 2011).

I have heard reports of them littering sidewalks, an crawling in all sorts of places. I even noticed two woolly bears that where all yellow without the familiar middle strip that people try to measure for the prediction of the upcoming winter. By looking it up on the internet (and the internet would never lie) that yellow ones are not uncommon, although I had never seen one in this area before much less two in one year.

I had my Super Splitter all revved up and running in the landing on a beautiful, blue sky day. The blocks of wood were splitting nicely and I was on a good working jag, when a woolly bear came from who knows where and dropped right onto the splitting table. The vibration of the Honda motor caused the little bug to roll into a tight ball. The same shaking caused the woolly bear to begin spinning in a hovering move, he/she looked like a top as the pokey orange and black hairs held it’s body slightly above the table. It remained mid-table for nearly a minute before the hovering and spinning took it inevitably toward an edge to fall safely to the ground.

I had stopped my splitting as I gawked in awe at the spectacle right in front of me. As the woolly bear dropped from the table, I wondered if that was another predictor of what kind of winter we are in for or  just a summary of how this very strange year has been playing out. Time will tell.

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