Tuesday night at the Worthington Town Council meeting (always interesting, or on some nights, entertaining would be the better word) I heard about a way to predict the weather that I hadn't heard before.

The higher the hornet's nest, the deeper the snow.

My grandpa Clovis had a huge hornet's nest that hung in the rafters of the Model Garage for many years. It was just there. Don't think I ever heard how it got there.

Anyway, the guys were talking about hornet's nests before the meeting.

David said three had been found within a block.

Then Gregg wanted to know how far off the ground they were.

The answer was about 12 feet.

Gregg said that was low and maybe that means there won't be much snow this winter.

He said, haven't you ever heard, the higher the hornet's nest, the deeper the snow?

Turns out the definition of what's high for a hornet's nest depends on who you talk to.

Here in the office, Timberly said she heard the hornet's nests are high this year.

But then Teana said her neighbor has one that's only three or four feet off the ground -- that doesn't sound high to me.

Then the talk turned to other ways of predicting winter weather.

Rick said the woolly worms are really black this fall.

And Chris said he heard the persimmons were showing spoons which means we'll be shoveling lots of snow.

I thought I'd heard some weatherman predict lots of snow this year. They were probably looking at data using a computer... don't you wonder if maybe, when nobody's around, weatherpeople are sneaking out to the woods to check a persimmon, look at a worm and search for a hornet's nest before they make those predictions?

What other old weather sayings have you heard from the old folks in Greene County?

Will it be a cold winter, a wet winter, or a snowy winter... What say you?

And tell me, are those hornet's nests high, or are they low?