West Virginia’s older folks have long claimed wooly worms can predict the weather, but a meteorologist says they are merely woolly stories. The older generation has held that one can tell how cold and snowy winter will be by looking at the fur on the worm. Black fur means snowdrifts will reach the treetops and running rivers will freeze while a woolly worm with light-colored fur signals a milder winter with warmer temperatures. But Ken Batty of the National Weather Service in Charleston, considered a local expert on folklore predictors, says most of that folklore doesn’t have much of a scientific basis but agrees it is fun to talk about it. “I wish forecasting the weather was that easy,” he told the Charleston Daily Mail. Batty said he hasn’t seen any woolly worms this year, but it’s very possible no two will have the same coat. © Copyright 2004 by United Press International

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