October Weather Signals of the Winter Ahead

Frost on the pumpkins might mean that the October Full Moon is also a frosty night.

My post about signs in nature of how intense the winter ahead will be always moves back up the stats list around the time of the autumnal equinox.

My friend, Maria, told me that her Italian mother believed that if there is a bumper crop of acorns in the fall, it means that we will have a bad winter. That’s one of many weather proverbs or nuggets of weather lore. My mother told me as a child that if leaves hang on in the autumn and are slow to fall, we should prepare for a cold winter. The little scientist in me as a child wondered if it wasn’t just because the fall was gentle and we didn’t have the wind or rain to shake the leaves loose from branches. But then I suppose you could say that a gentle autumn means a tougher winter.

Several bits of weather lore look to October weather to predict the winter to come:  https://wp.me/piq5C-3Th

• Much rain in October, means much wind in December.
• Thunder in the fall is supposed to foretell a cold winter ahead.
• A warm October means a cold February.
• A Full Moon in October without any frost means a warmer month ahead.
• In late autumn and up until the Winter Solstice, flowers still blooming is a pleasant surprise but is supposed to be a sure sign of a rough winter to follow.

The general rules seem to be that a gentle preceding season means a colder one to follow. For example, I have read weather lore that says that a mild winter means a cold spring to come.

Do keep in mind that with all this weather lore, your local observations might be an indication of the local weather ahead and not about the country or the world. I am not a believer in the “official” winter forecasts you often see in the media about the winter ahead. Though they may be “scientific” they are so broad that the microclimates we all live in often are quite different.