Old Farmer's Almanac

By any measure, the cold weather months in Missouri and Illinois have been very mild so far. Technically, it won't be winter for a few more days, but there's something about squirrel activity in Missouri that makes me wonder what they know about our upcoming winter that we don't.

Will we see any significant snowfall or will it be a warmer-than-normal winter? The answer depends on which outlook you want to believe.

Not to be confused with the Farmer's Almanac, which is the new kid on the block compared to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the Old Farmer's Almanac has, according to their website, been at this weather prediction game since 1792 (230 years).

Toward the end of every year, we get multiple groups and publications coming out with their predictions on what kind of weather we'll be experiencing over the next few months.

Not to be confused with the Farmer's Almanac, which is the new kid on the block compared to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the Old Farmer's Almanac has, according to their website, been at this weather prediction game since 1792 (229 years). The Farmer's Almanac is the relative newcomer, publishing their first almanac in 1818, the year Illinois became a state.

We live in Northern Illinois, where we get freezing temperatures and plenty of snow. Some years are lighter in one or both of those occurrences, but we know we're still gonna get them both.

Whenever I think about the weather predictions offered up annually in the Old Farmer's Almanac, I think about a piece I read years ago that said something to the effect of their forecasting being to meteorology what astrology is to astronomy.

I know what you're saying. "Why, that just can't be right! When has it ever been both cold and snowy in Rockford during the winter?" Stunning as it seems, we do sometimes get both.

We haven't seen a Harvest Moon occur on Friday the 13th since October of 2000, and it'll be awhile before it happens again.

With weather being the number one topic in America for the second straight week, I've started to think a bit about what the winter of 2017-2018 will look like for the Rockford area. I figure that a publication that's been around since Washington was president would be my best source for that info. Plus, it's sitting here on my desk, so I didn't have to actually search for anything...