CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- The Old Farmer's Almanac, the familiar, 223-year-old chronicler of climate, folksy advice and fun facts, is predicting a colder winter and warmer summer for much of the nation.
Published Wednesday, the New Hampshire-based almanac predicts a "super-cold" winter in the eastern two-thirds of the country.
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More bad news for those who can't stand snow: Most of the Northeast is expected to get more snowfall than normal . . .
Please, not another winter like the last one, which was the most brutal in my lifetime. When it was clear that this was unfolding as the most pleasant summer in recent years, I thought there might be some cosmic force in play, restoring balance to the universe. But if you start thinking like that, it naturally follws that if we're going to have another cold and snowy winter, it has to be follwed by a hott-erothan-usual summer.
Oh, well, this is just junk science anyway, right? Any prediction more than a few days out is just stuff they make up. Well . . .
The almanac, which has about an 80 percent success rate in its forecasts, employs modern technology but still uses the "secret formula" that founder Robert Thomas devised in 1792. By combining the study of sunspots, prevailing weather patterns and basic meteorology, the almanac's weather staff comes up with a long-range forecast. The temperature deviations are based on 30-year averages compiled by government forecasters.
