The story appears on

Page A9

August 17, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeWorld

US in for a very chilly winter, according to ancient almanac

The Old Farmer鈥檚 Almanac said it will be super cold with a slew of snow for much of the United States, even in places that don鈥檛 usually see too much of it, like the Pacific Northwest.

There鈥檚 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.

Otherwise, 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. The snowiest periods in the Pacific Northwest will be in mid-December, early to mid-January and mid- to late February, according to the almanac.

鈥淛ust about everybody who gets snow will have a White Christmas in one capacity or another,鈥 editor Janice Stillman said from Dublin, New Hampshire, where the almanac is compiled. It鈥檚 due out in the coming week.

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.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 expect a whole lot of relief,鈥 Stillman said.

The predictions are based on a secret formula that founder Robert Thomas designed using solar cycles, climatology and meteorology. Forecasts emphasize how much temperature and precipitation will deviate from 30-year means compiled by the government.

No one鈥檚 perfect, and meteorologists generally pooh-pooh the Almanac鈥檚 forecasts as too unscientific. The almanac, which defends its accuracy for its predictions overall, said its greatest errors were in underestimating how far above normal California temperatures and Boston-area snowfall would be, though it did predict both would be above normal.

The record-breaking winter in Boston dumped more than 279 centimeters of snow on the city. The almanac doesn鈥檛 call for as much this year.

The 224-year-old book is believed to be the oldest continually published periodical in North America.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend