Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Farmers' Almanac Predicts a Wild Winter 29
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2004/aug/29/082908489.html ^ | 08/290/2004 | David sharp

Posted on 08/29/2004 2:18:07 PM PDT by Double DDs

Previous: Web Turns 35, but Still Work in Progress 29 Aug. 12:55:31 Next: Internet Turns 35, Still Work in Progress 29 Aug. 09:50:43 Printable text version | Mail this to a friend

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today: August 29, 2004 at 11:13:08 PDT

Farmers' Almanac Predicts a Wild Winter By DAVID SHARP ASSOCIATED PRESS

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - Gas up the snowblower but don't put away your umbrella: The Farmers' Almanac is predicting a wild winter with heavy precipitation and dramatic temperature swings in the Northeast.

The northern Plains and Great Lakes will be snowy, the almanac says, while it will be milder in the southern half of the country. The Northeast will have unusually wet weather - either as rain or snow, according to the almanac.

"The big thing is it's going to be a winter of extremes," said managing editor Sandi Duncan, whose almanac hits newsstands Tuesday.

The weather formula used by the 188-year-old Farmers' Almanac is a closely guarded secret. Prepared two years in advance, the forecasts are based on sunspots, the position of the planets and tidal action of the moon.

(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...


TOPICS: Unclassified
KEYWORDS: weather
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-5051-57 next last

1 posted on 08/29/2004 2:18:07 PM PDT by Double DDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

"The weather formula used by the 188-year-old Farmers' Almanac is a closely guarded secret. Prepared two years in advance, the forecasts are based on sunspots, the position of the planets and tidal action of the moon."

If forecasting weather is so easy, two years in advance no less, how come the daily weather person is OFTEN wrong?


2 posted on 08/29/2004 2:21:06 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nmh
"how come the daily weather person is OFTEN wrong?"

Actually, you'd be suprised how much they are righton. It's around 90 percent. We just notice when they're wrong!

Mike

3 posted on 08/29/2004 2:23:22 PM PDT by MichaelP
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MichaelP

I live in NY and am a weather nut


4 posted on 08/29/2004 2:24:18 PM PDT by Double DDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: nmh

I didn't realize that "often" is defined by only maybe 5-10 times an ENTIRE YEAR.

Weather forecasters are very accurate.


5 posted on 08/29/2004 2:25:12 PM PDT by rwfromkansas (BYPASS FORCED WEB REGISTRATION! **** http://www.bugmenot.com ****)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

Based on how incredibly cool this summer has been, a mild winter makes sense. Ususally, the pattern configuration changes between summer and winter, which would mean probably the pattern would shift to an unusually mild one in winter. But, we will see.


6 posted on 08/29/2004 2:26:51 PM PDT by rwfromkansas (BYPASS FORCED WEB REGISTRATION! **** http://www.bugmenot.com ****)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs; 8mmMauser; EGPWS; Acela; afterhoursguru; AlextheWise1; AniGrrl; ...
~gasp!!!!!!!! I live in northern Maine and we can get up to 127 inches of snow a season. Holy Moses!

There is a road out there somewhere, behind that tree. This is my front yard.

7 posted on 08/29/2004 2:31:52 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

I think we had like 175 last year


8 posted on 08/29/2004 2:33:16 PM PDT by Double DDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

Cripes......how do you get to work? Snowmobile?


9 posted on 08/29/2004 2:34:48 PM PDT by Godebert
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

Oh goody. I just hope that it stays warm enough to dig a spot out for our granson to play.


10 posted on 08/29/2004 2:34:53 PM PDT by armymarinemom (Ultimate Flip Flop->I support the Troops but not their mission)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

I live in Ohio and I am a weather nut!


11 posted on 08/29/2004 2:37:59 PM PDT by ruoflaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs
I live in the Mid-Coast Area, Ocean keeps the snow at Bay....well sometimes.
12 posted on 08/29/2004 2:38:22 PM PDT by maineman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs
I live in the Mid-Coast Area, Ocean keeps the snow at Bay....well sometimes.
13 posted on 08/29/2004 2:38:57 PM PDT by maineman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs
Farmers' Almanac Predicts a Wild Winter 29

Never mind winter '29, how is winter '05 going to be?

14 posted on 08/29/2004 2:39:37 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ruoflaw

I live in Wilmington NC I'm just a nut.


15 posted on 08/29/2004 2:42:08 PM PDT by boomop1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

Hmmm...I'm looking at that picture and thinking "we're thinking about going back to northern Maine when my wife retires????? *L*


16 posted on 08/29/2004 2:46:04 PM PDT by Bottom_Gun (Crush depth dummy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MichaelP
Actually, you'd be suprised how much they are righton. It's around 90 percent. We just notice when they're wrong!

I assume you are talking the next day. Otherwise we have a problem out in the Seattle area. We had a hot spell which was supposed to cool off in about 3 days. That went on for two weeks. They just moved the day it was supposed to cool off another day each day.

Also in the spring months they are not very good beyond a day.
17 posted on 08/29/2004 2:47:01 PM PDT by microgood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

Russian version ;-)
18 posted on 08/29/2004 2:52:25 PM PDT by struwwelpeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

We get about 1/4" of snow about once every 13 years if we are lucky to get that much. (Gulf Coast where it is almost always summer)


19 posted on 08/29/2004 2:55:34 PM PDT by NEBO (You don't create terrorists by fighting back. You defeat the terrorists by fighting back. ~GWBush~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: maineman

Sorry!


20 posted on 08/29/2004 2:55:52 PM PDT by maineman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Godebert

I prefer Dogsleds, for the more old fashioned touch.


21 posted on 08/29/2004 2:57:13 PM PDT by DreadCthulhu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas

When they are wrong depends on how you define it. Predicting snow in one berg and having it snow a mere 10 miles away counts as a total miss to the people in the berg...


22 posted on 08/29/2004 2:57:53 PM PDT by null and void (Behold! I am become death, destroyer of threads.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

This can't be right . . . . global warming . . . . enviro-nazi horse hockey nonsense.


23 posted on 08/29/2004 2:59:15 PM PDT by DustyMoment (Repeal CFR NOW!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

Given that we had NO summer here in MI, and the trees have been changing for the last couple of weeks, I'm very curious as to what the winter will be like.


24 posted on 08/29/2004 3:01:13 PM PDT by mombonn (kerry . . . he spent 20 years in the Senate and doesn't have much to show for it. ¡Viva Bush/Cheney!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

You must be having one cold August.


25 posted on 08/29/2004 3:06:24 PM PDT by MediaMole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MediaMole

I have a weather rock that is just as accurate as the Farmers Almanac


26 posted on 08/29/2004 3:09:35 PM PDT by phil1750 (Love like you've never been hurt;Dance like nobody's watching;PRAY like it's your last prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

What is this anyway? Weathernuts Anonymous?


27 posted on 08/29/2004 3:11:57 PM PDT by arasina (So there.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: MediaMole
You must be having one cold August.

Oh no! hehe! That was taken last year. Actually, it has been quite warm here. It was heat index of 83 yesterday, and with the humidity, it can be quite uncomfortable.

This summer has been pretty decent, but a LOT of rain.

28 posted on 08/29/2004 4:08:48 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: NEBO

We eventually got about 18" all winter. Not a good show for a winter 8 months long.


29 posted on 08/29/2004 4:13:30 PM PDT by RightWhale (Withdraw from the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty and establish property rights)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: struwwelpeter
This isn't my house or my cat........I heat with wood with oil back-up. But I thought this was cute.........


30 posted on 08/29/2004 4:14:11 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs
I think we had like 175 last year

Where do you live???

31 posted on 08/29/2004 4:14:55 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Godebert
Cripes......how do you get to work? Snowmobile?

Well, the City has the snow storms down to a science. They keep the roads open really well. I have seen complete shut-downs from some storms, but not very often.

But yes, snow mobiles are BIG BUSINESS up here!!!

32 posted on 08/29/2004 4:16:30 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

LOL. Reminds me of a winter we had in Upstate NY a few years ago. Snow was so high that when the kids came home from school all you could see of them was the pompoms on their hats bobbing above the tops of the trenches dug over the sidewalks.


33 posted on 08/29/2004 4:16:37 PM PDT by mewzilla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

Don't believe a word of that! We've had so much rain this spring and summer here in MA, that a nearby reservoir that's been down many feet since time immemorial, is now brimming full. I am sick and tired of shoveling snow every winter, so this year I demand a snowfall of one or two inches, only on lawns, nothing on roads or driveways or sidewalks.


34 posted on 08/29/2004 4:16:58 PM PDT by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bottom_Gun
Hmmm...I'm looking at that picture and thinking "we're thinking about going back to northern Maine when my wife retires????? *L*

Don't be thrown off. Winters are a way of life up here. Once you get used to it, they can be very beautiful. Especially if your into outdoor sports.

35 posted on 08/29/2004 4:18:01 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: nmh

Did the almanac predict this unusually cool summer in North America and Europe?


36 posted on 08/29/2004 4:18:38 PM PDT by ValerieUSA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SheLion

And you shovel and shovel and there's nowhere to put anymore snow. It's over your head. Okay, I'm nuts. I gave away a perfectly good snowblower because I hated it. It wasn't 'me'. So I shovel and curse the air blue from Nov. until March.


37 posted on 08/29/2004 4:19:14 PM PDT by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: ValerieUSA
Did the almanac predict this unusually cool summer in North America and Europe?

Nope. The August 2003 AP story on the annual Farmers' Almanac press release says, "The forecast calls for a showery spring followed by an extremely warm and humid summer."

38 posted on 08/29/2004 4:31:51 PM PDT by willieroe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

I watch Storm Stories often on the Weather Channel and am absolutely amazed that people will risk their lives over and over again going out in truly hazardous conditions, i.e. driving in rapidly flowing flood waters several feet high, or driving when its twenty below with no visibility. Nothing is worth risking your lives.


39 posted on 08/29/2004 4:35:57 PM PDT by diamond6 (Everyone who is for abortion has already been born. Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs

And, (I forgot to add this) people who ignore tornado warnings.


40 posted on 08/29/2004 4:36:58 PM PDT by diamond6 (Everyone who is for abortion has already been born. Ronald Reagan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Double DDs
…while it will be milder in the southern half of the country.

YES!


I really dislike high electric bills, snow & ice, sleet, freezing rain - in short, winter.
41 posted on 08/29/2004 4:38:37 PM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MichaelP
It's around 90 percent.

I kept track of the local forecasters for awhile when they started doing “Accurate, dependable” 10 day forecasts.
They were about 90% accurate for the 24 hour forecast, but their accuracy dropped fast after that. I believe the 48 hour was about 50% and beyond that near 0.
42 posted on 08/29/2004 4:41:44 PM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: mombonn

I cannot believe what a cold "summer" we have had here across the lake in WI. I hope our winter is really mild!


43 posted on 08/29/2004 4:44:44 PM PDT by lawgirl (is RNC bound! W here I come!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: hershey

And you shovel and shovel and there's nowhere to put anymore snow. It's over your head. Okay, I'm nuts. I gave away a perfectly good snowblower because I hated it. It wasn't 'me'. So I shovel and curse the air blue from Nov. until March.

I have a guy that snow plows for me, and thank God, my yard is big enough that he just pushes the snow way over to the one side.  But I do get mounds of snow on each side of my drive-way from the City snow plow guy.  Lord, how I hate that man.


44 posted on 08/29/2004 4:51:21 PM PDT by SheLion (Donate to Swift Boat Vets. "I" did!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: nmh
If forecasting weather is so easy, two years in advance no less, how come the daily weather person is OFTEN wrong?

As others have pointed out the weatherman is remarkably right most of the time. Besides that, the almanac is predicting a seasonal average, the weatherman is predicting a binary (as far as most people see it) set, good or bad. Averages give a lot more leeway.

45 posted on 08/29/2004 4:55:59 PM PDT by Phsstpok (often wrong, but never in doubt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: hershey
Lots of rain in NJ, too. It's been awhile that grass has been green into and thru August.

Weather is fascinating! DH and I took a course in it years ago and now with all the info on the Weatherchannels, it is absorbing.

46 posted on 08/29/2004 5:04:43 PM PDT by Exit148 (Loose Change Club report.:since last Freepathon$12.87/ average 2.15/week. Painless!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: rwfromkansas

You're certainly entitled to your opinion however I disagree.


47 posted on 08/29/2004 5:13:53 PM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: null and void

True.

They are normally correct around here though.

But.....we don't have lake effect snows, which are really tricky. Nor do we have Nor'esters, mountains to mess forecasts up etc.


48 posted on 08/29/2004 5:34:03 PM PDT by rwfromkansas (BYPASS FORCED WEB REGISTRATION! **** http://www.bugmenot.com ****)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: ValerieUSA

Definitely the coolest summer I can remember in a very long time....


49 posted on 08/29/2004 5:35:47 PM PDT by rwfromkansas (BYPASS FORCED WEB REGISTRATION! **** http://www.bugmenot.com ****)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: R. Scott

10 day forecasts? They are just trying for ratings.

The stations here just go out 7 days and readily acknowledge that the best they will get with the last couple days is a rough guess based on what the pattern appears to be like.

Trying to act like it will be accurate 10 days out is just dishonest.


50 posted on 08/29/2004 5:37:47 PM PDT by rwfromkansas (BYPASS FORCED WEB REGISTRATION! **** http://www.bugmenot.com ****)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-5051-57 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson