A brutally cold winter with a lots of snow for much of the U.S., even in places that don't usually see too much white stuff, is being predicted by the "Old Farmer's Almanac" – not to be confused with its younger rival "The Farmer's Almanac."
Look for above-normal snow and below-normal temperatures for much of the northeastern New England states; icy conditions in parts of the South; and frigid weather in the Midwest. Even the Pacific Northwest will get hit; the snowiest periods will be in mid-December, early to mid-January and mid- to late February, the oldest almanac predicts.
"Just about everybody who gets snow will have a White Christmas in one capacity or another," editor Janice Stillman said from Dublin, New Hampshire, where "Old Farmer's Almanac" is compiled. It's due out in the coming week, reported The Associated Press.
The almanac says there will be above normal-rainfall in the first half of the winter in California, but then that will dry up and the drought is expected to continue. "We don't expect a whole lot of relief," Stillman said.
The weather predictions are based on a secret formula that founder Robert B. Thomas designed using solar cycles, climatology and meteorology. Forecasts emphasize how much temperature and precipitation will deviate from 30-year averages compiled by government agencies.
No one's perfect, and some meteorologists generally pooh-pooh the Almanac's forecasts as too unscientific to be worth much. The almanac, which defends its accuracy for its predictions overall, says its greatest errors were in underestimating how far above normal California temperatures and Boston-area snowfall would be, although it did predict both would be above normal.
The record-breaking winter in Boston dumped more than 110 inches of snow on the city. The almanac doesn't call for as much this year.
There's plenty more to peruse in the folksy, annual book of household tips, trends, recipes and articles, such as animal jealousy, the history of shoes and anticipation for the biggest Supermoon in decades in November 2016.
The 224-year-old almanac, believed to be the oldest continually published periodical in North America, is 26 years older than its closest competitor, "The Farmers' Almanac," published in Maine and due out later in August.