Posted by Suzanne McMinn on October 10, 2007
If you believe The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the longer the middle brown band on a woolly worm, the shorter and milder the coming winter. The shorter the brown band, the longer and snowier. According to studies (yes, I’m not kidding, there have been studies) woolly worms are close or completely right 57% of the time.
I see more black than brown on this woolly worm who dropped out of the sky onto my manuscript this weekend when I was going over my book. Uh oh….. 
Maybe we could do an informal study of our own! Everybody go find a woolly worm in your area…..
7:30
am
Nearly every wooly bear ‘pillar I’ve seen this year has been almost completely brown.
I hope it holds true, cuz on the flip side, there are no acorns lying around anywhere — and another tale holds that the squirrels stock up more when there’s a bad winter expected. Last year we had acorns everywhere.
We’ll see who wins, the ‘pillars or the rodents. I’m pulling for the ‘pillars.
7:46
am
We don’t have wooly worms… does that mean England won’t get a winter??
7:59
am
8:03
am
The house is coming along great!
Wooly worms eh? Hmmm we’ve been having unusually warm weather here.
Cole
9:31
am
I haven’t seen any and I’m not looking! I don’t want to know.
10:24
am
I haven’t seen any, either.
We’ll be in for a long and cold winter, regardless. Even if it turns out to be short and “mild” for this area, it’ll still be too cold and long for me!
-Kim
11:02
am
11:19
am
The only wooly worm that I have seen, so far, was mostly black.
2:11
pm
Thats good news to my ears. As little rain we’ve gotten this summer, and constantly running out of water because of it, the more snow the better. I don’t have to work anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if I couldn’t get out to go somewhere.(As long as the fridge and freezer were full anyway).
Hope everyone has a great day and enjoys the nice fall day.
Leanne
2:17
pm
The only things I’ve seen in the Pacific Northwest is slugs and snails. No wooly worms so far.
2:44
pm
I’ll be on the outlook and let you know. Our weather just dropped 25 degrees - autumn has just arrived lol.
3:19
pm
I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen a wooly worm!
3:56
pm
Well, I’m pulling for a mild winter. To me that’s the best kind.
9:12
pm
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woolly worm. Is that a bad thing, or a good thing?
WE’ve been un-naturally warm here in SC so far, but we should be normal for this time of year by the weekend. I hope. *g*
Have a fun day tomorrow! (I’m late commenting today!)
2:51
pm
I haven’t seen a single woolly this year. But the squirrels have been gathering the pine cones off the evergreens since August. Maybe that’s not a good thing lol
8:21
am
Pennsylvania, brown on both ends =amounts
1/3 brown, 1/3 black, 1/3 brown
The prediction here: mild beginning, 5 snow days, mild end.
11:45
am
http://www.woollyworm.com festival, in Banner Elk, North Carolina . Races too! Oct 20-21, 2007. Check it out!
9:04
pm
We’ve lived in NC for almost 15 years now, and up until last year we’ve watched for the woolies and watched the bands on them.
However, last year we could count on both hands how many woolies we saw … and this year we haven’t seen even one woolie. Last winter was very mild and now this summer we’ve been in a severe drought. I’m hoping the woolies haven’t died out in this area from last of moisture! 
6:28
am
[...] you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!The first woolly worm I found this year predicted a cold, hard winter. What rational choice did I have but to disqualify [...]
10:35
pm
I have been reading a lot about this new pet that my students found. It is the woolly bear!!
They will be very happy to know that we get to keep “George” until spring. “Georges” prediction for Southern Minnesota: we will be looking at a very cold start to winter with lots of snow the first 4 weeks. Mild with light snow the 5-9 week and the last 5 week they will be bundling up warm for lots of sledding with hopefully some snow days 
12:35
pm
3:20
pm
Hi, Sheila! I don’t know. But they sound really cool!
9:02
pm
Well I live in the Stark County Area on Ohio and I have seen alot of all black woolly worms but I have seen some with very liltte brown on them. I am worried that it is going to be a hard winter
!
Hoping Not
Chris from Stark County, Ohio
1:48
pm
We are in North Central Iowa and this afternoon we saw our first wooly worm for the season. The first one was long and had a huge brown middle a black head and a smaller black tail. The rest of the woolyies we saw were much shorter with almost all black.
12:51
am
I just found the blackest (no brown stripes untill he rolled up and then they were thin and deep under the black) woolly worm I’ve ever seen. From what I read, this means really cold and snowy.
K
Missouri Ozarks
11:33
pm
Ju st saw my first Wolly of this year, and it was a FAT one!! Broad brown band but 1/3 black at both ends. I’ll just look out the window this winter and go with the flow. whatever that turns out to be. What do Wolly Bears turn into anyhow???? I never hearn that part of the story. Bonnie
2:51
pm
Today (October 19th, 2008) I found our road littered with wooly bears! Most of which I observed has a very small amount of black on their head, a very wide brown band and very little black or none at all on their tail end. I stopped and viewed at least a dozen with the same markings. I live in Southwest Missouri 33 miles north of Springfield.
Glad to be apart of the study…hope this helps!
5:35
pm
Today is October 26th. We found the cutest wooly bear. It is mostly brown with black tips. Ohio’s winter are never really harsh anyways. Well then again that month of february is a doozy. The children want ot keep it. I don’t know how. S. Lee