The Banded Woolly Bear Caterpillar, also known as the woolly worm or the Isabella tiger moth, is one of the most common fuzzy caterpillars, and the easiest to find due to their orange and black coloring.

According to folklore, the band coloring can help predict winter weather forecasts. WeatherWorksInc.com wrote:

Folklore says the woolly bear caterpillar can predict the severity of the winter simply by the length of the red-orange band at the center of its body. Basically, the more red-orange there is the warmer the winter and the less red-orange, the colder, more snowy the winter will be.

I came across an adorable woolly bear on a walk over the weekend and snapped a picture of him crossing the sidewalk (above) to see what he had to say about this upcoming winter.

The little guy I saw had more black towards his head, which would translate to a cold start, but he had quite a bit of orange on his body that extended almost all the way back to his behind which means we could be in for a warmer, milder winter.

The other version of these bugs predicting winter weather has to do with the direction they are seen crawling. If they crawl in a southerly direction are trying to escape the cold winter conditions of the north, but if woolly bear's are crawling north, it would indicate a mild winter.

I saw this guy heading west. Make of that what you will.

I'm not dead set on having my winter forecast come from a caterpillar, but I'm not totally opposed to it either. One thing I do know for sure is that these guys are cute, and there will be snow and cold this winter in Minnesota.

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10 Animals in Minnesota That Can Predict the Weather

 

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