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The 2016 Old Farmer's Almanac says the United States is headed into a colder-than-normal winter with above-average snowfall, overall.
According to the almanac:
- The Northeast will be particularly cold.
- The South will see more snow than normal.
- The Midwest will see less snow but colder temperatures.
- The Pacific Northwest will see three rounds of major snowfall between mid-December and late February.
"Just about everybody who gets snow will have a White Christmas in one capacity or another," editor Janice Stillman said from Dublin, New Hampshire, where the almanac is compiled. It's due out in the coming week.
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The almanac says there will be above normal-rainfall in the first half of the winter in California, but then that will dry up and the drought is expected to continue. "We don't expect a whole lot of relief," Stillman said.
The weather predictions are based on a secret formula that founder Robert B. Thomas designed using solar cycles, climatology and meteorology. Forecasts emphasize how much temperature and precipitation will deviate from 30-year averages compiled by government agencies.
No one's perfect, and some meteorologists generally pooh-pooh the Almanac's forecasts as too unscientific to be worth much.
The almanac, which defends its accuracy for its predictions overall, says its greatest errors were in underestimating how far above normal California temperatures and Boston-area snowfall would be, although it did predict both would be above normal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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