I live in Central Illinois and was wondering.?

Question

It seems as if all of the squirrels have all but left except for 1 or 2 that I might see, and some of our trees look like the leaves are changing colors already. I was just wondering if this could be a bad sign or a good sign?

Answer 1

Sounds like you might have an early winter.  Whether that's a good or bad sign depends on your opinion of winter.

Answer 2

Having lived in Illinois most of my life I can tell you that the leaves change colors in stages.  Every year we always had some trees that would begin to change in late August with the last of them changing and losing their leaves in November.  I loved my Maple trees but sadly they were some of the last to lose their leaves and I always ended up raking the leaves in the cold November rains (good song)

Since leaves are subject to frost at night, when they change depends mostly upon when the first frosts come... which does not mean an early winter, only that you had an early frost.

Whether the winter will be harsh is more closely related to the behavior of birds, since they leave and squirrels will stay.  When they leave early we tend to think that winter will be early.  They have the inside track.