In Austria’s St. Veit, a popular ski area in the eastern Alps, the locals turn to a yellow flower called Köningskurze, or “king’s candle,” to predict how much snow the winter will bring.

“It’s very skinny and goes right up into the air,” said Irene Baumgartner, who runs a ski tour business along with her husband, Siegi, in the Alpine town. “When [the plants] get tall, there is going to be lots of snow.”

And the flowers stood tall until recently, according to those who track the flowers’ growth.

“We just had our first snowfall,” she said. “It was so heavy that our dear flowers broke under the weight.”

But skiers should be happy, she said, because there is already a large base of fresh snow on the nearby glacier.

Climatologist Harald Stauss, who works at the Air Force’s 21st Operational Weather Squadron in Sembach, Germany, agrees that this looks like a good season. He said the “skiers will have their snow, no doubt about it.” By Thanksgiving, he said, the Austrian Alps should have had several snowstorms.

“German ski resorts, however, will likely not receive snow until winter officially arrives,” he said. Northern Germany can expect storms, but high temperatures will make it unlikely that much snow will fall soon; the south will experience lower temperatures but clear skies.

“The snow will come later,”” Strauss said.

Strauss based his predictions on a number of factors: the snowfall amounts from the previous year, the weather in the past few months, stratospheric conditions, the solar cycle, tidal action and even sunspots.

Still, he pointed out, pre-dicting the weather is far from an exact science.

It’s no wonder that the people of St. Veit have placed their trust in the prognostications of a favorite flower.

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