How do they know?
Without instrumentation, balloons, satellites, or any of the other myriad of devices used by meteorologist to predict the weather---animals seem to do well at predicting major changes well in advance of any obvious signs. In my observations none seem better at this than are deer.
Last night I told my wife the deer were telling me that bad weather is on the way. Yesterday morning the herd showed up a little late but then stayed in the field feeding for probably twice the normal stay. Yesterday afternoon they were back at about 3, at least an hour ahead of the normal time. They remained there feeding, with obvious purpose, until dark. Their normal late day feeding is about 30 minutes, not 2 hours.
The grass they are feeding on in the field is the highest protein feed they have. I don't have any winter wheat out this year and so their only reasonable option (without a long trip) is browse----a very low energy option.
The weather forecast this morning from the "real" weather forecasters: Snow starting tonight and continuing into tomorrow with 8" of accumulation. 
That will make feeding on grass difficult-----but they knew that
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis
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