BY KYLE LOVERN

Many of you love the fall season with the brilliant colors as the many colorful foliage changes. But as much as I love autumn, I am one to dwell on what lies ahead. Winter.

I am not a fan of winter. Sure, when I was a youngster I would love to see snow and maybe get a day off school. I lived at the mouth of a hollow so my friends and neighbors had an excellent place to sled.

Building snowmen with my sister Karen or getting in snowball battles with neighbors was always fun.

I remember some very mild winters when it seemed like we could still play basketball down at the schoolyard well into December or ride our bikes up and down the streets of Nolan. I also recall some long, tough winters when it was very icy and the snow seemed to stay on the ground all winter.

I can recall my parents in the autumn months and the old timers who lived nearby talking about whether the upcoming winter was going to be a particularly cold one or not.

There are many ways Appalachian people and farmers in other states would predict the coming season. They didn’t have or get to watch the Weather Channel with their expert meteorologists. They also did not have Doppler radar on their computers or phones like we do now.

Of course, the No. 1 way I remember for predicting the winter ahead was by looking at the wooly worms.

Wooly worms, ranging from an amber color to all black, seemed to be the topic of winter prognostication every fall. The number or width of the orange or amber bands around the center of the furry insects means a mild winter, and a solid black wooly worm predicts a hard, cold winter. This may not be scientific, but researchers have found this to be fairly accurate.

Another old wives tale is about counting the number of fogs in August. For every fog we have in that month it is supposed to be a day of snow in the coming winter months.

Then there are the gray squirrels that gallivant around our hills of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The old timers would say if squirrels are very active gathering up nuts like hickory, chestnuts and walnuts – it is a sign of a longer winter.

Many of those who would farm and have gardens would say if corn has thicker husks than normal, the more layers you will need to wear in the coming winter.

Frequent rings or halos around the moon is another way to forecast the number of snowfalls for the winter.

An increase in the number of wasps and yellowjackets in September indicates a harsh winter to come.

The amount of sun or clouds on Halloween day determines what the weather will be like for the rest of the winter.

The degree of spider webs spun late in the year indicates how bad the following winter could be. If the arachnids weave certain thickness to their webs they are expecting foul weather.

Some folks will just read the Farmers’ Almanac and go with that annual publication.

These are many popular signs that seem to foretell the winter ahead for us country folk. The ancient signs may not be foolproof predictors, but I believe there just might be something to some of them.

Either way there is not much we can do about the weather. As Mark Twain said, “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.”

So I guess there is not much we can do about the weather.

We get all four seasons here in the Tug Valley and Appalachia, and I’m OK with that. But sometimes it seems like the winters last a lot longer, especially the older I get.

If you are wondering about the coming winter months ahead, take a hike and check out the wooly worms or the squirrels. You just might get your answer.

(Kyle Lovern is a longtime journalist in the Tug Valley. He is now a retired freelance writer and columnist.)