Do Wyoming’s Wooly Bear Caterpillars Predict a Rough Winter Ahead?

I just learned of the mythos surrounding wooly bear caterpillars and their groundhog-ish ability to tell us what's happening with the weather.

According to folklore, these critters can predict how cold and snowy the upcoming winter will be. Here's the truth behind the stripes. As these fuzzy little tube socks emerge, their colors can predict what type of winter is ahead.

Say Whaaat?

Black bands: If a woolly bear is mostly black, it indicates a longer, colder and snowier winter is ahead.

Brown bands: If the middle brown band is large, then the upcoming winter will not be as cold or snowy.

"The woolly bear caterpillar's coloring is based on how long [the] caterpillar has been feeding, its age, and species," the National Weather Service explained. "The better the growing season is the bigger it will grow. This results in narrower red-orange band in its middle."

Verdict is in, I believe I've spotted one in the Garden Creek area and it's brown band was big and fat. A mild winter we shall have.

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While folklore suggests a wide brown band means a mild winter, scientists note that the band's width is actually more related to the previous winter's conditions and the caterpillar's age, not the upcoming one.

Woolly bears have been sighted in areas like Grand Teton National Park and the Big Horn Mountains. They are well-suited to Wyoming's cold winters and can produce a natural "antifreeze" to survive harsh conditions.

They are the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth. They are common across the United States, including Wyoming, where they like to hang out in fields and even forests.

"Since I was a kid, I've known about the Wooley bear (sic) and have been using it to give some insight to the upcoming winter for around 50 years now," wrote Bob Pratt on a Grant Teton National Park's post about the little oracle. "For me, it's been about as right as the Farmers Almanac and way more accurate than the local News Weather Forecasters."

The Old Farmer's Almanac was correct about fall, saying it would be warm and dry in September and October for the Cowboy State. If they're correct about winter it'll be mild but wet with temps warmer than normal and precipitation above normal, too.