One day in early September, the chief of a Native American tribe was asked by his tribal elders if the upcoming Christmas was going to be white with snow, and if the winter was going to be cold or mild.

The chief asked his medicine man, but he too had lost touch with reading signs from the natural world around them.In truth, neither of them had any idea about how to predict the coming winter.  However, the chief decided to take a modern approach, so he rang up the local National Weather Servic...