I mentioned the Farmers Almanac winter forecasts in my last post. Overall, they are predicting colder-than-normal temperatures except in the west and southeast, with plenty of snow in the north, wetter rather than whiter as you move south. It's been widely reported that they have predicted a blizzard on the weekend of the February 2 Superbowl Sunday in New Jersey, a game that is to be held outdoors.

This scenario would be a lot different from last year, when I don't think I used my snow shovel once. 2010 was a lot different, as we got hit by one snowfall after another. For this former Californian, it was kind of fun... for awhile.

Winter 2010 in My Neck of the Woods

The Farmers Almanac has provided long range weather forecasts since publication started in 1792. Their forecasts these days are based on regular ol' meteorology and weather cycles, plus sunspot activity. Some Almanac fans claim an 80% accuracy rate for these forecasts. However, Jeff Masters, meteorologist/blogger at Weather Underground, weighed in on this a few years ago. According to him, past Farmers Almanac long range forecasts have not been accurate at all... perhaps no better than random chance.

I was interested to see that the Almanac forecasters have also predicted a global cooling trend, to last several decades, a trend that supposedly already began in 2008. This prediction was based on sun spot activity. It's hard to reconcile this with all the attention being placed on global warming, isn't it? The Almanac isn't the only meteorological source predicting global cooling, rather than warming. (Google it if you don't believe me.) Confusing, particularly as political and economic interests seem to have gotten deeply involved in spinning this particular topic to the point that I don't really trust anybody.