Long Island Winter Forecast 2019-2020 Released By NOAA

Winter is coming. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have released a winter forecast for 2019-20 that's predicting a warmer than normal season for Long Island.

Not a single section of the United States is expected to have colder than usual temperatures this winter, but some areas will experience more rain.

"Wetter than average conditions are most likely in Alaska and Hawaii this winter, along with portions of the Northern Plains, Upper Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes and parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast," the agency said in it 2019-20 winter forecast, which it recently released.

Long Island's precipitation looks to be normal this winter, according to the report.

The government organization stays away from projecting seasonal snowfall accumulations as snow forecasts are generally impossible to predict until the week prior.

Even during a warmer than usual winter on Long Island, though, periods of cold and snowfall are still possible.

What do The Farmers’ Almanac and Old Farmer’s Almanac predict for the winter?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration isn’t the only organization that’s released a 2019-20 prediction, but consensus can be hard to find when it comes to weather.

Followers of the Farmers’ Almanac for instance, are bracing for a snowy, bone-chilling season. Meanwhile, forecasters at the rival Old Farmer’s Almanac are predicting more rain than snow.

The two meteorological publishers have almost identical names, but their long-range forecasts could not be more different.

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 outfits use so-called “secret formulas” to predict the weather that they keep closely guarded, and only time — and winter — will tell which one has it right.