(WHTM) – You may have heard that the woolly bear caterpillar can “predict” whether we will have a mild or harsh winter.

However, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), this caterpillar cannot predict what winter will bring.

According to folklore, the amount of black on the woolly bear in the fall varies equally with the severity of the coming winter in which the insect is found, according to the NWS. If the woolly bear is predominantly black, it will be a very harsh and harsh winter. If the woolly bear has an orange stripe, it means the winter is mild. The wider the red-orange band, the milder the coming winter will be.

The NWS says this caterpillar actually can’t predict what winter will bring. They say that the color of the woolly bear is related to its age, species and what it fed on.

The better the growing season, the larger the caterpillar becomes, in turn giving the insect a narrower red-orange band down the middle. This band can therefore be an indicator of the current or past growing season and not of the severity of the winter.

In addition, the color provides information about the age of the woolly bear caterpillar. The NWS said caterpillars shed their skin (also called molting) six times before reaching adult size, becoming less black and more reddish-orange. In addition, these caterpillars transform into tiger moths, and there are 260 different species of these moths worldwide.

The NWS says the myth has existed since the time of the Colonels. You said that Dr. Howard Curran conducted a small study in 1948 in which he counted the brown bands of various insects and predicted what winter would be like. It was then published in a newspaper and distributed throughout the country.

If you want to know what winter brings, it’s best to contact the current weather experts or the abc27 weather team!