Winter Weather Outlook - 2 Perspectives

Folks hammered by record snowfall in the mid-Atlantic and freakishly cold temperatures in the South can warm up to the latest forecast by the Farmers' Almanac.  The 194-year-old publication is predicting a "kinder and gentler" winter season for much of the nation. 

The Maine-based almanac, which claims it correctly forecast the Middle Atlantic's mega snowstorms, says in its 2011 edition that goes on sale Monday that it'll be plenty cold but nothing like last winter, when stunned iguanas fell from trees in Florida and 49 states experienced snowfall.

It will still be colder than normal for much of the country, the almanac says, and New England will get a "cold slap in the face" after missing last winter's misery.  Residents of the upper Midwest and Great Lakes are expected to get the piles of snow that'll be lacking elsewhere.  Also, the almanac calls for mild temperatures in the Northwest and cold in the Southeast.

The forecast is at odds with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, which projects warmer-than-normal winter for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and colder-than-normal weather in the Northwest.

 

 

 

Looks like the CPC thinks we have equal chances of being above average, below average, or average.
  
The Maine-based Farmers' Almanac is not to be confused with the New Hampshire-based Old Farmer's Almanac. Both issue annual forecasts, with The Old Farmer's Almanac scheduled for release Sept. 7.