Do You Put Much Stock In Farmer's Almanac Weather Predictions?

OneEyedDiva

OneEyedDiva

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Location
New Jersey
Until I looked for something to link in this thread, I didn't even realize there's an Old Farmer's Almanac and (just) Farmer's Almanac, both claiming 80% accuracy, but with slightly different forecasts. I saw an article in one of my news apps about the almanac stating the northeast would have a milder, drier winter. I remember having the Almanacs in book form in the house. Maybe my parents got them.
  • The Old Farmer’s Almanac specifically predicts:
    • Average to above-average snowfall for the intermountain region, including Colorado, Utah, and Lake Tahoe in California, with snowiest periods in mid-November, early and late January, and mid-March.
    • A “cold, dry” winter for the northern half of Indiana, while the southern half is expected to be “cold, snowy”.
    • A “calmer, gentler” winter overall, with temperatures above average outside of the Midwest
And the Farmer's Almanac:
Farmers’ Almanac Winter 2025 Extended Weather Forecast

A milder winter for N.J. was mentioned in an article I saw last week but now can't find because it popped up in one of my news apps. I hope that's right.
 

I suppose that the almanac’s long range forecasting in the days before radio and television was better than nothing.

We always had one and my grandmother always consulted it before planting her garden or to see when the first frost could be expected, etc..,

This was taken from one of our local television networks.

Farmers’ Almanac has released its predictions for the 2024-25 winter season, calling for a “wet winter whirlwind” to come — but we haven’t even seen the end of summer. How accurate are these winter predictions several months out?

Both the Farmers’ Almanac and the Old Farmer’s Almanac — two separate publications — claim to be 80% accurate with their forecasts. But a study conducted by John E. Walsh and David Allen, published in the 1981 edition of Weatherwise, showed that only 50.7% of the monthly temperature forecasts and 51.9% of the precipitation forecasts panned out correctly. This is essentially the same as flipping a coin for each day.
 
Aunt Bea said:
I suppose that the almanac’s long range forecasting in the days before radio and television was better than nothing.

We always had one and my grandmother always consulted it before planting her garden or to see when the first frost could be expected, etc..,

This was taken from one of our local television networks.

Farmers’ Almanac has released its predictions for the 2024-25 winter season, calling for a “wet winter whirlwind” to come — but we haven’t even seen the end of summer. How accurate are these winter predictions several months out?

Both the Farmers’ Almanac and the Old Farmer’s Almanac — two separate publications — claim to be 80% accurate with their forecasts. But a study conducted by John E. Walsh and David Allen, published in the 1981 edition of Weatherwise, showed that only 50.7% of the monthly temperature forecasts and 51.9% of the precipitation forecasts panned out correctly. This is essentially the same as flipping a coin for each day.
Click to expand...
My folks always planted according to the Almanac and there was a lot of discussion about it. The almanac always won out. We had a ton of veggies each year. We would can and freeze a ton of them. We always shared with neighbors and they did the same with us. Some years our peas were abundant and we would trade with neighbors that were not so lucky. The same with all our veggies. We looked out for each other.
 
I've never bought one, but I've always thought of it as a friendly down home guide with a homespun attitude. Comfort over accuracy. When I see one laying around at someone's house, which I haven't in many years, it gives me a good ole-time feeling. Now that you bring it up, I might buy one, just for the heck of it.
 

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