Soooo Exactly What Type of Winter Are We in For?

Fall is the time of year to get outside and enjoy football games, corn mazes, color tours and enjoy some cider by a fire. We Michiganders enjoy this time we have because we know all too well... Winter Is Coming!

A lot of debate has been going on about what kind of winter we are going to have. Will it be cold and dry, or will we have tons of snow and storms? Well, I have taken the liberty to do a bit of research to see what claims may be true and which ones we can probably just ignore.

One of the many wive's tales is about fog in August. The legend says that for every foggy day in August, there will be a snowstorm in the winter. This year in August we had 20 days with the right conditions for fog to form (all calculated data via WeatherUnderground)

With that being said, it's looking like we should be in store for a nasty winter. Buuuuuut that might not be the case. In 2017 there were 18 days in August that had a great possibility of fog, however that winter it snowed less than the average for Grand Rapids.

Another sign of a harsh winter is seeing an abundance of wooly caterpillars with extra thick coats. The same thing goes for just about any other animal, assuming if there is a build up of fur we are in store for a cold winter.

However, I have not seen a single fuzzy caterpillar and my cat and dog both have been shedding like crazy so either they are out of touch with the weather just as much as we are, or it won't be so bad.

Also apparently acorns can predict the coming winter as well. This year the acorns falling in my yard have been HUGE with thick caps and oh man... there are so many... This points to the winter being harsh as the trees know all and are preparing their seeds for lots of snowfall and cold.

The most reliable source for most people is the Farmer's Almanac. Some people question the validity of the light reading but at the same time are convinced that a groundhog can predict the coming of spring.

The groundhog is right about 47% of the time, while predictions of past Farmer's Almanacs show to be up to 80% accurate. The little book says that we can expect this winter to be extremely cold with heavy snowfall... great... via Farmers Almanac 2018

At the end of the day, I'm going with the almanac. However we can assume all we want, but we all know the weather in Michigan can be pretty unpredictable.