“Predicting” winter weather in the Ozarks using folklore

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - The cold and snowy weather of winter is right around the corner, and there are some unusual and fun ways to try to guess what winter could bring. Two of the more popular folklore items here in southwest Missouri are woolly worms and persimmon seeds.

We received many photos of both from all across the area, and thanks to everyone for that. Each have their own method for, well, “predicting.”

We’ll start with the woolly worms. According to folklore, a wide brown band means a mild winter. And while a few photos had all black woolly worms, most had a wide brown band.

For the persimmon seeds, there are three possibilities to see when you slice one open:

A spoon, which indicates a shovel for digging out the snow.

A knife, a cold icy winter.

And a fork, that indicates a mild winter.

The vast majority of the photos we received?

Spoons, which, according to folklore means a lot of snow to shovel.

Taking them both into account, they indicate a relatively mild winter with a lot of snow here in southwest Missouri.

If true, snowy scenes will be pretty common, but we’ll see how the winter plays out.

While it is fun to keep an eye on those persimmon seeds and the woolly worms to see what kind of a winter we might get, once we do start getting that cold and snow, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on the KY3 First Alert Weather App.