Old Farmer's Almanac on coming winter: 'Super cold'

A centuries-old chronicler of climate, folksy advice and fun facts has bad news for folks who don't like cold and snow.

The Old Farmer's Almanac released it's 223rd edition Wednesday, and its calling for a 'super cold' winter for the eastern two-thirds of the United States this year.

“Winter will bring a frosty bite and next summer will be its mirror opposite, so get ready for a one-two punch,” editor Janice Stillman said.

"Colder is just almost too familiar a term," Stillman said. "Think of it as a refriger-nation," but noting that "colder than average" is still only about 2 to 5 degrees difference overall.

According to the almanac, "Winter will be much colder than normal (in the Ohio Valley, incuding the Pittsburgh region) with the coldest periods in mid-December, from late December through early January, and in mid- and late January."

"Precipitation will be slightly below normal, but snowfall will be above normal, with the snowiest periods in early to mid-November, mid- and late December, late January, early February, and early to mid-March," the almanac stated.

Next summer will be hotter and drier than normal, the almanac stated.

The almanac boasts an 80-percent accuracy and last year predicted a cold winter for almost every region.

But the almanac excepted the lower Great Lakes, upper Midwest and the northern states of the Northeast from that forecast -- and those areas were among the coldest last winter.

Yep.  I'll say it again...take cuttings by December!  Mentally, I'm still recovering from this past winter.  It really was unique to say the least.

There are so many companies now doing climate modification, as well as our governments geo-engineering program, that it is impossible to forecast how crazy the weather will be. Normal or natural weather no longer exists. As usual, our meddling seems to make things worse. I hope for the sake of all our Eastern members that your winter is milder than the last one.

I know you folks had it rough in the NE but last winter in Florida was very nice.  We are normally dry in the winter but had rain last winter regularly and only one freeze, was almost perfect with no sustained cold episodes almost a complete winter of 75 degree days.   

Hopefully its not gonna be as bad, the wind is what was really terrible. I believe wind chills were close to 50 below or so. Not fun either way.

I have always found that the opposite of long range forecasts are usually true.  

So I am always glad to hear them predict a colder, wetter, snowier than usual because in the past the opposite to the forecast has been true.

Thanks for the great news about this coming winter! 

I hope you're right Joe. We need a mild winter for the trees and ourselves.

I'm hoping NOAA's 3 month outlook is right