If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that I am quite the believer in using squirrels nests to predict the severity of the winter.
This may sound silly or strange to some, but it’s just a different version of those old farmer’s tales. This is how it works.
Supposedly the higher up in a tree a squirrel builds its nest, the colder the winter will be. You have to know, of course, that squirrels always build at least halfway up the tree or higher–so it helps to know a little bit about squirrels to start.
So a nest at about the mid-point of the tree–or even slightly higher–would mean a very mild winter.
Conversely, a nest very near the top means a cold winter.
I will weigh in here with the objective observation that I have never completely understood why this is true. It would seem to me that if I were a gray furry mammal and I thought it was going to be cold, I would like to be nearer to the ground than way up in the air.
But my nearly decade long survey of squirrels and their nesting habits has shown that they seem to know what the heck they are doing. It just proves that I would never survive in the wild!
So based on past predictions, my squirrels are calling for the polar vortex. Don’t say they didn’t warn you!
Gardendaze 
I just noticed that our seven-day forecast has “possible snow” on tap for Friday. I am not ready for that! 😦 Then again, a quick flip through my gardening journal also reveals that we had a light snowfall (about 2″) last year on the 15th of November….. which doesn’t mean that I was ready for that then either, LOL
We have 3 chances for possible snow between this Friday (November 8 and next Wednesday (November 13). And like you, last year we also had snow in that November 15-16 timeframe. Ours was a fairly big storm–8 inches or so. And then we had another 8 incher in March–our two biggest storms last year were technically outside meteorological winter.
If that’s as bad as it gets this year, I will be a very happy camper!
Karla
They know what they are doing. Some of us know what the winter should be like by the fur on dogs, cats or horses. However, Rhody is not providing much information yet.
I think my dog would like to try to grow a winter coat, but she doesn’t have traditional schnauzer fur–we think she may be a mix. The rescue group picked her up off the Philadelphia streets, poor thing! So we have to keep her very closely clipped. In our climate, this means the dreaded dog in sweater–or coat–look.
Karla