While the west and east coasts are feeling the wet and windy effects of El Nino storms, we continue our relatively mild winter weather in southeast Wisconsin. High temperatures this week will remain in the thirties, just above the average high of 28 degrees. Most of the groundhogs saw their shadows on Monday, so there should be six more weeks of winter, unless you live in Sun Prarie where no shadow was observed. My money is on the Sun Prarie groundhog, since there hasn't been much of a winter season, and more of the same is likely.
Many folks like to observe signs of nature or animals to see if they can predict the weather.
A study compiled over a sixty year period found that groundhogs were right only 28 percent of the time when predicting the end of winter. Percentages for wooly-bear catepillars and squirrles are even less than that. Some look to the trees for a weather forecast, such as the curling and turning bottom up of maple leaves in a blowing wind which means rain will shortly follow. Foresters claim they can tell how rough a winter is going to be by the density of lichens on a nut tree. It is said that before the katydid awakes, a black gum tree is able to indicate the oncoming winter.