Eskimo Winter

The eskimo chief suddenly died and his harward educated son was forced to become the new chief of eskimos.
Winter was fast approaching. The late chief had a way of looking at the sky and stars and calculating and predicting the severity of winter.
The eskimos approached the new chief and asked him if the oncoming winter is going to be severe. If it is expected to be severe, they have to start piling up wood.
The new chief, not being aware of his father's way of predicting the severity of winter, did not want to take any chances and asked his people to pile up some wood.
15 days passed. Still it did not seem as if the winter was going to be severe. The eskimo people again approached the chief.
"O Chief, we have piled up enough wood for a normal winter. Currently it doesn't look as if the winter is going to be severe. Should we continue piling up wood? Will the winter be severe?"
The chief called up the Met department and asked if the coming winter is going to be severe.
"Looks like the winter will be severe" answered the met department.
The chief asked his people to pile up more wood.
Another 15 days passed. Still there was no signs of a severe winter. The eskimos again came to the chief.
"Chief, will the winter be severe this time? Looking at the current weather, it doesn't look as if the winter will be severe. We have piled up so much wood that we do not even have space to pile more wood. Can you pl. tell us if we should pile up more wood?"
The chief again called the met department.
"Will this winter be severe?" he asked the met department, "It doesn't look as if it will be"
"Definitely. This winter is going to be the severest in a long time" responded the guy at the met deptt.
"How do you know?" the chief asked, 'How are you so sure?"
"The eskimos are piling up wood like crazy. Whenever they do that it portends a severe winter" answered the met rep.