Stormier Than Usual Winter For New England: Farmers' Almanac

By Brian McCready/Patch

Uh-oh. It's time to make sure the snowblower will work as apparently it will get a lot of use this winter. A new, long-range winter weather forecast has been released by Accuweather.com and it's predicting a very stormy winter for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Temperatures will start dropping to the 30s at night this weekend across southern New England.

AccuWeather Expert Long-Range Forecaster Paul Pastelok says that fall will remain relatively warm except for a "few cold spells across the Northeast during autumn, winter's chill won't arrive until at least the end of 2019."

He says winter will really get going after the New Year and we can expect a significant number of winter storms.

"Whether or not it's snowstorms, ice storms or mixed events, I do feel this is going to be an active year for the Northeast," Pastelok said. Above-normal snowfall could be in store for areas from New York City to Boston, Accuweather.com predicts.

What Do The Farmers' Almanac And Old Farmer's Almanac Predict For Winter?

Followers of the Farmers' Almanac are bracing for a snowy, bone-chilling season while the Old Farmer's Almanac's devotees are shunning snow blowers and taking out umbrellas.

The two meteorologic publishers may have almost identical names, but their long-range forecasts are like night and day.

The Farmers' Almanac, which released its prediction on Aug. 26, expects colder-than-normal temperatures and a lot of snow, with the frostiest snap coming during the last week of January and stretching into February. Winter weather will last into April.

But the Old Farmer's Almanac, which unveiled its forecast earlier in the month, expects the Northeast to be wet and warmer than normal.

"The middle of the country and New England can bank on a slush fund as 'more wet than white' conditions will leave sludgy messes that freeze during the overnights," its forecast says.

Both use secret formulas to predict the weather that they keep closely guarded. The two made opposite predictions last winter too, with the Farmers' Almanac warning it would be colder and snowier than normal, while the Old Farmer's Almanac predicted the Northeast would be warm, wet and with less snow than on average. The winter of 2018-19 fell somewhere between the two forecasts.

>>>Read Accuweather's full winter prediction here.