"Farmers' Almanac" predicts a "bitterly cold" winter

CXBS News ^ | August 25, 2013

[Hojczyk]

The Farmers' Almanac is using words like "piercing cold," "bitterly cold" and "biting cold" to describe the upcoming winter. And if its predictions are right, the first outdoor Super Bowl in years will be a messy "Storm Bowl."

The 197-year-old publication that hits newsstands Monday predicts a winter storm will hit the Northeast around the time the Super Bowl is played at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands in New Jersey. It also predicts a colder-than-normal winter for two-thirds of the country and heavy snowfall in the Midwest, Great Lakes and New England.

"We're using a very strong four-letter word to describe this winter, which is C-O-L-D. It's going to be very cold," said Sandi Duncan, managing editor.

Based on planetary positions, sunspots and lunar cycles, the almanac's secret formula is largely unchanged since founder David Young published the first almanac in 1818.

Modern scientists don't put much stock in sunspots or tidal action, but the almanac says its forecasts used by readers to plan weddings and plant gardens are correct about 80 percent of the time.

Last year, the forecast called for cold weather for the eastern and central U.S. with milder temperatures west of the Great Lakes. It started just the opposite but ended up that way.

[jmacusa]

Here in the Northeast, NY/NJ area it’s been a rainy spring and summer. End of June I was thinking this was going to be a bad winter.

[Ladysforest]

We have had almost no humidity here either. It’s actually been the nicest weather we have had in 4 or 5 years. The gnats have been the only insects that have been in abundance - and ticks.

I do recall a couple of cool summers just like this one in the past 15 years. If you don’t need to run the AC, and you aren’t desperately wishing you had a pool, it’s a “cool summer” in my book. :)

I have noticed that in the past week my hens have been going in to roost before true dusk, and I wonder if that is a “sign”. This is my first year with grown hens, but they have been staying out till it’s nearly dark until the last week. Suddenly they decided to begin to go to bed early.

[Past Your Eyes]

You’re a regular Cosa Nostradamus.