Ah yes, the power of suggestion. Last week the Old Farmer's Almanac came out with their winter weather forecast. What a surprise: it claims an early and nasty winter for much of the country. Of course it does. What better way to gain notoriety, get good press coverage and sell more almanacs.

Here in Wisconsin they generally broad-brush a "normal" winter forecast. Based on the near-normal equatorial Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperatures that I wrote about in last week's weather column, their "normal" winter forecast makes sense.

What has been interesting to me is hearing observations and conclusions people are making since the Old Farmer's Almanac announced their predictions. I've received calls from people in our area claiming more Canada geese are heading south now than they have ever seen before in late summer.

"I think that Farmer's Almanac is right about this upcoming winter," one viewer e-mailed me. He based it on the number of geese flying overhead and heading south. What he failed to notice is there are still many groups of Canada geese flying north, east, and west. This time of year they are looking for farm fields or large areas of grass and water to feed. They don't begin their migration based on the upcoming winter forecast. Geese don't read the Almanac. They move south because of shorter hours of daylight. That is their signal to start heading for southern Illinois, southern Missouri and southern Indiana.

Squirrels start to get active and bury nuts for a winter food supply. It's a seasonal thing for them, too, although squirrels can be seen burying nuts any time of year. They can't predict the upcoming winter. Through years of evolution they know that when winter rolls around it is helpful to have some food stashed away and buried in the ground.

Even the width of the stripe on a Woolly Bear caterpillar has nothing to do with the upcoming winter, although they are often used to foretell future weather. Experiments done with the caterpillars show wide brown bands often are seen when conditions are wet, narrow bands when conditions are dry. They aren't predicting the future but simply reacting to past conditions.

Regardless of long-range weather predictions from the National Weather Service, The Old Farmer's Almanac, or your Aunt Betty's sore bunions, signs from nature occur based on evolution and survival.

Leaves change color when longer, colder nights in autumn cause the tree to stop producing chlorophyll, the green color of leaves in summer. Once the chlorophyll stops, the true colors of the leaves (red and yellow) are allowed to show. The tree wants to rid itself of leaves so it can better survive the harshness of winter. During the dry weeks of July, several trees in our area showed signs of color. That was due to stress from lack of rain and a suppression of chlorophyll production, not a forecast of an early and harsh winter.

The power of suggestion is strong. It gets us looking for things that aren't really there. Nature shows us a lot, but don't put too much faith in the predictive powers of plants and animals.

Watch Vince Condella on Fox 6 Sunday through Thursday at 5, 6 , 9 and 10 p.m. You can see the FOX 6 weather forecast around the clock at www.fox6milwaukee.com