Predicting Winter Weather

Disclaimer #1: if this is like offensive I'll assume the moderators will remove it...
Disclaimer #2: this is a bit of a yarn but well worth the read.

So for hundreds of years the Indians on the Great Plains were experts at
predicting upcoming weather patterns. I believe the modern Farmers Almanac
picked up on some of that and use some of these methods to do their predictions.

One year not long ago on the 9th day of the 9th moon a chief on the great plains
woke up at sunrise and knew it was time to determine what kind of winter was on the
way. He sniffed the air, scratched the dirt, and licked some bark but there was nothing
there, just nothing.

So he gave it 2 days and again sniffed the air, scratched the dirt, and licked some bark
but there was nothing there, just nothing.

To be safe he sent a party out to start gathering wood.

A few days later he once again sniffed the air, scratched the dirt, and licked some bark
but again there was nothing there, just nothing.

So he did what any modern day chief would do and called the National Weather Service
and asked what kind of winter was expected on the Great Plains. Oh it's going to be a
cold one they said.

So the next day he gathered his tribe and said go gather more wood.

A week later nothing was happening so he sniffed the air, scratched the dirt,
and licked some bark but still there was nothing there, just nothing.

He called the Weather Service again and asked what kind of winter was on the way.
Oh it's going to be a horrible winter, very cold, could break records they told him.
Curious he asked: How do you know this?
They said: Satellite images are picking up images of people on the great plains gathering wood.

 

Damn. It's gonna hit mid 70's today. I still will put on a long sleeve shirt to take off the chill.
It's 58 at 9:30 a.m. and I'm hitting the small heater to warm me a bit.