This coming winter will bring above-normal snowfall to the Northeast, but is not expected to be worse than last winter when a string of snow storms kept Long Island blanketed in white stuff.
That’s according to the long-range weather forecast published Wednesday in the 2015 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the 223-year-old New Hampshire-based annual guide to gardening tips, recipes, fun facts and astronomical data.
“Think of it as a refriger-nation,” Janice Stillman, the Almanac’s editor, told The Associated Press.
The Almanac also forecasts that this winter will be colder than normal, with temperatures 1-to-4 degrees below average. The snowiest part of the season the season will be the later half of December, mid-January and the first half of February, according to the Almanac.
The publication touts that its storied prognostication is derived from a “secret formula” concocted by its 18th century founders that now also incorporates modern advances in meteorology and climate science. It says it is accurate in 80-percent of forecasts, although the 2014 edition’s forecast that this summer would be “oppressively” hot and humid in the Northeast hasn’t come true.
The National Weather Service, which generally sticks to short-term forecasts, predicted Thursday above-average temps and an equal chance of above or below average precipitation in its three-month outlook for September through November, according to the agency’s Climate Prediction Center.
The Almanac’s above-average snowfall prediction for this winter will likely prompt groans from Long Islanders still shivering at the thought of the polar vortex and the seemingly nonstop snow it brought after the New Year—or the record-breaking February 2013 blizzard that blanketed part of Suffolk County in nearly three feet of white stuff.
Looking beyond next winter, the Almanac also forecasts above-normal spring and summer temps on the East Coast with below-average precipitation. It also predicts that the 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season “will not be particularly active,” with a major tropical cyclone most likely to strike the Gulf region in late August.
The Almanac was released a month early this year due to reader demand, AP reported.
