Just when you thought you had gotten over last winter, be warned: The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts it will be super cold with a slew of snow for much of the country, even in places that don't usually see too much of it, like the Pacific Northwest. Look for above-normal snow and below-normal temperatures for much of New England; icy conditions in parts of the South; and frigid weather in the Midwest. The snowiest periods in the Pacific Northwest will be in mid-December, early to mid-January, and mid- to late February, the 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 the almanac is compiled. It's due out in the coming week.
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 says. 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. Meteorologists generally pooh-pooh the almanac's forecasts as too unscientific to be worth much.