Posted on 08/29/2004 2:18:07 PM PDT by Double DDs
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ...
"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?
Actually, you'd be suprised how much they are righton. It's around 90 percent. We just notice when they're wrong!
Mike
I live in NY and am a weather nut
I didn't realize that "often" is defined by only maybe 5-10 times an ENTIRE YEAR.
Weather forecasters are very accurate.
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.

There is a road out there somewhere, behind that tree. This is my front yard.
I think we had like 175 last year
Cripes......how do you get to work? Snowmobile?
Oh goody. I just hope that it stays warm enough to dig a spot out for our granson to play.
I live in Ohio and I am a weather nut!
I live in the Mid-Coast Area, Ocean keeps the snow at Bay....well sometimes.
I live in the Mid-Coast Area, Ocean keeps the snow at Bay....well sometimes.
Never mind winter '29, how is winter '05 going to be?
I live in Wilmington NC I'm just a nut.
Hmmm...I'm looking at that picture and thinking "we're thinking about going back to northern Maine when my wife retires????? *L*

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)
Sorry!
I prefer Dogsleds, for the more old fashioned touch.
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...
This can't be right . . . . global warming . . . . enviro-nazi horse hockey nonsense.
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.
You must be having one cold August.
I have a weather rock that is just as accurate as the Farmers Almanac
What is this anyway? Weathernuts Anonymous?
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.
We eventually got about 18" all winter. Not a good show for a winter 8 months long.
Where do you live???
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!!!
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.
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.
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.
Did the almanac predict this unusually cool summer in North America and Europe?
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.
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."
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.
And, (I forgot to add this) people who ignore tornado warnings.
while it will be milder in the southern half of the country.
It's around 90 percent.
I cannot believe what a cold "summer" we have had here across the lake in WI. I hope our winter is really mild!
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.
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.
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.
You're certainly entitled to your opinion however I disagree.
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.
Definitely the coolest summer I can remember in a very long time....
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.
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