Once upon a time, before there were computers and apps on our phones, people looked to nature for ways to know what the weather had in store.
Let's talk about persimmon predictions.
These small tomato-looking fruits apparently contain a wealth of knowledge about meteorology.
The shape of the root within a persimmon seed is said to foretell how harsh the cold weather season will be.
A spoon indicates plenty of snow for you to "shovel".
A knife foretells of sharp cold that will "cut" through you.
And a fork represents mild conditions.
Cutting these seeds open is not an easy process... The good news is that the Hiwassee/Ocoee State Park in Polk County did the work for us.
Each year, officials from the park slice open persimmon seeds to determine what kind of winter we have in store.
This year they found 14 spoons, 8 knives, and 3 forks.
So according to those persimmon seeds... We are in for a snowy and somewhat bitter winter.
But what if you have a mistrust of persimmon predictions?
What do the woolly worms, the prognosticators of winter weather, have to say?
According to folklore each of their 13 segments represents a week of winter.
And yes, there are 13 weeks in the winter season.
Black fur represents cold weather.
Brown fur indicates milder conditions.
But how do you know which worm to trust?
There’s actually a festival for that…. In Banner Elk, North Carolina.
The Woolly Worm Festival has taken place for the last 41 years and according to WoollyWorm.com the 2018 winning worm (named Montgomery County’s Best) foretells of a cold start, mild middle and harsh ending to the cold weather season.
Truth be told, the color of a woolly worm depends on that of its parents.
Now, even though using seeds and worms to predict winter's wrath is a lot of fun, we'll have a look at your OFFICIAL winter weather outlook with Todd Howell on the Nightbeat Monday, Oct. 29 and Tuesday, Oct. 30.
