Examining its multi-colored segments from head to tail, the bands indicate a cold and snowy start to December, followed by near-normal temperatures and little snow through mid-February. This year’s winner was Twinkle Toes, a mostly brown worm that suggests a mild winter overall. Worms from across the state race up a rope, with the winner becoming the Festival’s official winter forecaster. Still, the woolly worm and its purported weather forecasting abilities are embraced by the town of Banner Elk in the North Carolina mountains, which has held an annual Woolly Worm Festival each October since 1978. The science says that brown bands appear as the worms grow, which is affected more by warmer weather in the previous winter or spring than in the coming one. The story of the woolly worm as a winter forecaster began in the 1950s, when a museum curator in New York related brown bands on the worms with milder winter conditions. Our first Winter Outlook post looks at a few bits of folklore to see what they say about the coming winter. In these five posts, we will discuss predictions and patterns that may shape North Carolina’s winter weather.įolklore is a popular source for predictions about the weather, and North Carolina has a rich collection of winter weather folklore, ranging from insects to almanacs to the weather itself.

Our 2015-16 Winter Outlook series begins today and concludes on November 23rd.

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