Old Farmer’s Almanac Says Illinois Will Have 2 Different Winters?

Confusion is not surprisingly not an unusual state of mind for me, but this has me confounded. The Old Farmer's Almanac has just declared that Illinois will have two wildly different winters.

This is an interesting outlook on the upcoming winter by the "Old" Farmer's Almanac not to be confused with the "New" Farmer's Almanac. They've just issued their winter weather forecast for the upcoming 2024//2025 season where in general they're calling for what they call a "calmer, gentler" winter. Look at what they're saying about Illinois though. It's two completely different types of winter.

The "Old" Farmer's Almanac says that most of the northern half of Illinois will be "cold, dry" while downstate and the parts of Illinois next to the Mississippi River will be "mild, snowy". There are also parts of Illinois that will get parts of both and be "cold, snowy" so which one is it?

For reference, the "New" Farmer's Almanac predicts Illinois' winter will be "cold, wet and white". But, even their map has a slight part of western Illinois in the "cold, average snowfall" area.

Will Illinois' winter really be a split personality with different parts of the state seeing completely different kinds of weather? We shall soon see.