‘Farmer’s Almanac’ forecast gives New Englanders hope for snowy winter

The "Farmer's Almanac" said recently that New England will be stormy with above average precipitation with plenty of snow across the mountains for the upcoming winter. (Keith Pearson/NESJ)

Recent New England winters have not exactly been fast out of the starting blocks. Between warm fall temperatures that have made snowmakers play the waiting game and then rain washing out their hard work, it has not been a good first quarter of the season.

At this point, skiers and riders are looking for any reason to be optimistic that we’ll have anything more than a white ribbon of death for those first couple of weeks.

The “Farmer’s Almanac” recently gave something for skiers and riders reason to be excited about for the upcoming season when it released its winter forecast.

It said that a La Niña, the cooling of the Pacific Ocean, will develop and across the country “will be wet and cold for most locations” and it will be “a season of rapid-free storms.”

But what about here in New England? Well, get ready to hear about rain-snow lines.

“Winter in New England and the Northeast will be stormy with above-normal amounts of winter precipitation and near-to above-normal temperatures,” the almanac said. “Snow will be most prevalent over the interior and mountainous terrains, while sleet and rain will be more common near the coast, especially near and along the I-95 corridor.”

It might take us a bit longer to get to the mountains, but that should be enough to get us excited to get the skis tuned up sooner rather than later.

Late January is a stretch that could be particularly white, according to the almanac, highlighting Jan. 20-27 as a period of stormy weather across the eastern U.S. Late January into early February will be the coldest stretch of the winter.

The “Farmer’s Almanac” says the forecast it has published since 1818 is based on “correlations between celestial events and various meteorological conditions” while accounting for “fluctuations in the environment on Earth, as well as sunspots (and) the motion of the moon.”

Most importantly, it gives us a reason to believe the year will be filled with powder days.