HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) – The brown-and-black markings on this year’s crop of woolly bear caterpillars suggest the coming winter will be mild, the organizer of an annual inspection said Tuesday.

Local children collected about 20 woolly bears for a contest sponsored by the Hagers-Town Town and Country Almanack, said Gerald W. Spessard, the publication’s business manager. He said he and the other contest judge observed that the fuzzy caterpillars were mostly brown.

“There’s not a whole lot of black at either end, so we both agree this should be a fairly mild winter,” Spessard said.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration says there is an equal chance of above- and below-normal temperatures and precipitation in the region from December through March.

The almanac, which recently published its 209th edition, is the nation’s second-oldest continuously published periodical, after the Old Farmer’s Almanac, of Dublin, N.H., which is entering its 214th year.

The Hagerstown almanac is distributed in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.