Aahhh, October, known for its crisp blue skies and brilliantly colored leaves. Remember the grade school art projects that took us outside to collect leaves and brought us inside to dry the leaves, or trace them on sheets of construction paper, cut them out, and use them to decorate the classroom?

Our Northwest October this year has delivered many beautiful days (it’s a perfect Fall day out my window—blue skies, white clouds, golden leaves on the trees) but many really soggy days as well. I watch the weather app on my phone change overnight from a forecast of ten days of sun to intermittent days with 80% chance of rain!

Since I am not well versed in weather science, but am often vexed by the difference between the forecast and the actual weather, I thought today we could consider weather prediction. Tom’s dad used to look for the wooly bear caterpillar, also known as the “wooly worm,” to see how wide its orange stripe was. (The wider the stripe, the milder the winter, as the legend goes.) Turns out the size of the stripe indicates the age of the wooly worm, not the severity of the upcoming winter.

So here are a few notions about weather predictions that you might relate to.

Tom’s mom, Lynda Kauffman, dispensed nearly 80 years of  life experience and common sense in her column, “Oldtimer’s Wisdom,” which she wrote for our magazine, Family Scrapbook. “A Modern Family Talks Weather” was posted by my friend Heather on her Facebook page a while back. Finally, we have a TV weatherman whose Eagle Scout training introduced him to a do-it-yourself weather indicator.

Whether you have the weather you expected today or not, I hope you enjoy your day!

Ginger