Tag Archives: caterpillar

forecasting the future with our friend the wooly bear caterpillar?

forecasting the future with our friend the wooly bear caterpillar?

what does our friend the wooly bear caterpillar ( larval stage of the Pyrrharctia isabella ) tell us about the upcoming winter? according to the farmer’s almanac the caterpillar’s relatively narrow brown band ( it’s hard to tell from this angle that’s narrow ) means we’ll get heavier than normal snow and its not particularly fat or fuzzy which means we’ll have a relatively mild winter in terms of temperature. so, snowy but not too cold. sounds perfect!

we’ll check back in the spring and see how accurate a forecaster our wooly bear caterpillar friend was.