Could It Bee A Cold Winter?

This picture was taken in Southern Illinois last December after 22 inches of snow fell. My brother-in-law Steve and I went for a frigid four-wheeler ride in the 24 degree air. I was thinking about this yesterday when it hit 96 degrees in Chattanooga.
It's human nature to wish for weather other than what's happening right now. When it's in the mid 90s people wish for cold weather. When it's below freezing we look forward to July's heat.
Humans have been looking at nature for answers to what's ahead weatherwise for probably as long as man has been around. So here's a story and some possible insight.
I was trimming some branches on the river birch tree in front of the house the other day. There is some low evergreen ground cover that surrounds the base of the tree. So stepping into it was the only way I could reach the branches that were about to get whacked.
Whammo! I looked down to see one hornet stinging me repeatedly on the stomach, and another one zapping my hand. OUCH! A whole bunch more flying up at me from around my feet. When the swelling finally went down I went out to see a hornet's nest about the size of a volleyball in the ground cover. The only hornet's nests I had seen in the past were way up in trees, or up under the overhang of a roof. Never virtually on the ground.
My neighbor Roy says that's a sign of a bad winter. Hmmmm.
So I looked it up in an old book I have in my collection. Signal Service Notes No. IX - Weather Proverbs 1883. And among the long forgotten wisdom this nugget: "Hornets build nests high before warm summers. When hornets build their nests near the ground, expect a cold and early winter." We'll see if my hornets put out an accurate forecast in 5 or 6 months. If they're right, this will truly be a case of killing the messenger. (I really didn't want to get stung again.)