Here’s Why Folks in KY and IN Should Be Counting the Number of Foggy Mornings

I feel like I'm in Game of Thrones, when I say this, but winter is coming!

Every year when we approach the start of fall, a lot of people automatically start thinking ahead to winter. The main question on everyone's mind is this one. Are we going to have a bad winter?

Now, I realize that the phrase "bad winter" is relative. Personally, I am not a fan of winter at all. I despise snow and ice and cold. So, I am always #TeamMildWinter. Honestly, I wish we could skip from fall to spring and just skip the winter months.

Throughout our history, we've accumulated a bunch of folklore about ways to predict the severity of the approaching winter. The Farmers' Almanac lists about twenty of them and they range from things like the hair on the back of a cow's neck to the early migration of the monarch butterfly to thicker-than-usual corn husks.

There's another sign on that list that Owensboro resident Danny Thompson swears by. It involves the number of heavy fogs during the month of August. Just a couple of days ago, Danny sent me a text message that read, "FOG! Remember to count the foggy mornings in August so we will know what to expect this winter. Two so far."

I asked Danny to remind me exactly what those fogs signal.  According to the legend, the number of heavy fogs in August equals the number of snows during the following winter. And, Danny adds, "The heavier the fog, the heavier the snow."

As of this story, at least here in western Kentucky and southern Indiana, we're up to three heavy fogs and we're only ten days into the month. If Danny and the legend are correct and that trend continues, that's more snow than we've had in a while here in the Tristate.

By the way, if you're interested. Some of the other signs you can look out for to help predict what's going to happen in winter- pigs gathering sticks, an abundance of acorns and the size of the orange bands on woolly worm caterpillars. There are apparently lots of things to be on the lookout for. As for Danny, he's got his eyes on the fog.