By Malcolm Baxter
So will this winter be white or wet? Next summer sizzling or so-so? For answers to those questions we, as we do every year, turn to the pages of the Old Farmer’s Almanac (Canadian edition of course).
December:
We get a few sunny days to open the month but then rain takes over for the rest of the first week and into week two.
Week three will see more precipitation but whether it is rain or snow showers will all depend on a degree or two difference in temperature.
In the week running up to Christmas the aged agrarian forecasts snow showers so there is a chance we’ll get a white Christmas, sort of.
And we’ll finish the month with sunny and cold.
January:
That cold weather carries over but with some snow showers thrown in to give cross country skiers some hope: they won’t be disappointed.
Week two sees heavy snow and for the rest of the month white will dominate.
February:
After opening sunny and cold, week two sees temperatures warm up, bringing rain.
The rest of the month Mother Nature can’t make up her mind swinging back and forth between rain showers, snow and sunny cold.
March:
The first 10 days of March will have us clearing our driveways regularly before precipitation falls away and we get a week of sunny cool.
Winter then bows out with two weeks of rain.
April:
The rain eases to showers for the first few days before hope of an early spring are dispelled by sunny cool weather.
But in week three the proverbial April showers take over with temperatures slowly warming as the month closes out.
May:
This is of course the big month for gardeners but I fear we are not going to be happy. Cool is the word for the month as is rain.
June:
This past year this month was uncharacteristically hot but this time around it will return to its normal, miserable cool and showery conditions.
July:
And things get only marginally better with the first two weeks being cool with a mix of sun and showers before the word warm appears for the first time in week three.
August:
This looks like the best month of the summer with the first week warm with a few showers, then a week of sunny hot weather. But temperatures slowly drop for the last half ending with cool showery weather.
September:
Opens cool with showers but weeks two and three will give us a nice run of sunny warm before we are back into cool and showery.
October:
Lower temperatures and rainy weather continue through week one but then we get nearly a week of sunny weather.
As one would expect, while the sunny weather continues into week three the cool air moves back in bringing with it showers to close out the month.
As always, I point out that the Old Farmer’s Almanac only claims an 80 per cent accuracy rate. I suspect a lot of readers will, like me, hope the 20 percent error is in its summer forecast.
