Rough Winter Ahead--Really, Farmers’ Almanac Predicts

LEWISTON, Maine - If last winter’s mild weather kept your snow shovel buried beneath beach towels and tanning butter, the Farmers’ Almanac recommends dusting it off this fall. Folks from Maine to Colorado can expect heavy snow and lower-than-normal temperatures, according to this year’s edition. “We are predicting a rough winter, with severe weather patterns that gradually shift eastward as the winter progresses,” writes Caleb Weatherbee, the pseudonym used by the almanac’s forecaster. The 186-year-old almanac, which goes on sale Tuesday, made similar predictions last winter.Those predictions, based on a model known to only two people that takes into account sunspot activity, planet position and effects of the moon, were mostly wrong. It forecast several feet of snow last year for New England, but the region had higher-than-normal temperatures-the toastiest winter ever recorded in Portland, Maine, and Burlington, Vt.-and a dearth of snow. Editors insist the almanac’s winter forecast has historically been accurate 75% to 80% of the time, even though most meteorologists say the weather cannot be predicted so far in advance.