MICHIGAN, USA — The woolly bear caterpillar: the fuzzy friend with a forecast. Legend has it that the length of the brown band on a woolly bear caterpillar can tell us about the severity of the winter ahead, but that’s just a myth.

Folklore says the longer the brown band, the milder the winter will be. If a caterpillar is mostly black with a short brown band, the winter would be harsher.

Where the brown band falls on the woolly bear caterpillar's body also has significance in the old wives' tale.

If the brown band is closer to the head with more black near the tail, the myth calls for a winter that starts mild, but ramps up near the end.

If the brown band is closer to the tail with more black near the head, the winter would start cold and snowy, but would get milder as the season goes

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