farmer's almanac forecast

[rainbowgardener]

Thought people might like to see this, the Farmer's Almanac forecast for the winter



Scientists warn against taking it too seriously, but they have been right sometimes.

[Gary350]

My father use to swear by Farmers Almanac. He would call me to warn me, this is going to be the worse winter in 100 years make sure you stock 3 month supply of food and water. Keep your vehicle gas tank full all the time and stock pile gas at home. He believed every word of the Farmers Almanac and it worried him to death. He would get mad at me for not taking it serious. I don't think anyone can forecast the weather several months in advance. Channel 2 Nashville has trouble getting weather forecast correct 2 days in advance. LOL. There may be some science that goes into making Farmer Almanac predictions that might actually be fairly accurate sometimes.

[applestar]

Well, they are putting NJ in the cold, snowy for this winter which might mean we will get some use out of the snow tubes and disk sleds I bought a couple of years ago....

[rainbowgardener]

My father use to swear by Farmers Almanac. He would call me to warn me, this is going to be the worse winter in 100 years make sure you stock 3 month supply of food and water. Keep your vehicle gas tank full all the time and stock pile gas at home. He believed every word of the Farmers Almanac and it worried him to death. He would get mad at me for not taking it serious. I don't think anyone can forecast the weather several months in advance. Channel 2 Nashville has trouble getting weather forecast correct 2 days in advance. LOL. There may be some science that goes into making Farmer Almanac predictions that might actually be fairly accurate sometimes.

Nobody can give exact predictions, but I think there are some big trends they can look at. Is it an El Nino year? The cycle of sunspots and solar activity. Studies of the atmosphere and climate, etc. They can't tell you you are going to get six inches of snow on a specific date three months from now. But I think it isn't unreasonable that they can have some idea of what the general trends are. That said, I did warn people not to take it over-seriously.

[thanrose]

Yeah, RBG, I get the Farmers Almanac once in a while, like once every five years or so. My grandfather got them annually, but gradually stopped. I now realize that his aging eyes (and mine) couldn't read them as easily for stuff like tide tables. Somewhat important to coastal dwellers. Big tropical storm coming my way? Hmmm, what time is high tide, what phase of the moon, etc.

Generally a lot of folk wisdom and anecdotal advice which I always take as mildly interesting entertainment. Some can be used as tertiary research. Tomatoes like red? Let me check that out elsewhere. (Instead of, "wow, that confirms what my neighbor told me!") I like the historic bits best, as in uses for vinegar or why the three sisters method was common.

But the weather? Yeah, like the television meteorologists and wannabes, the forecast is based on trends. I actually do find that useful to some degree. I know a warmish winter will mean that pests in general will survive all four seasons. Mosquitoes on Valentines kind of stuff. Azaleas starting to bloom in December. And I can start tomatoes from seed on Christmas instead of New Years.

[Gary350]

My father use to buy the Farmers Almanac, it had some interesting information that I use to like reading. I started to buy a Farmers Almanac about 6 months until I saw the price tag. My Grandfather never had much interested in the Farmers Almanac. My parents and grand parents both planted their garden by the signs. They checked the, moon phase, watch the birds, check weather, when all the signs were right they planted a garden and it always seemed to do good. The TV show NOVA did research of planting by the moon about 25 years ago, turns out there is a scientific reason why it really works. Plants take in energy from the Sun all day then after dark plants do most of their growing. A full moon is enough light to slow down night time plant growth. If you plant 2 identical crops, 1 by the light of the moon and 1 by the dark of the moon, the crop that matures by the dark of the moon will produce a larger harvest. A gardener like us will never notice the larger harvest but a farmer that harvests 2000 acres of corn will have a $210,000. harvest instead of a $200,000. harvest. NOVA also did test crops with north south rows VS east west rows. As I recall north south rows have the largest harvest because east west rows never get sun light on the north side of the plants. I think people use to be more observant than people are now days it was a way of life back then.

[Gary350]

Farmers Almanac online.

https://www.almanac.com/gardening