Long-term weather forecaster Farmers' Almanac predicts chilly conditions and snow storms to carpet parts across the United States through to next March.
After searing heat waves hitting parts of the country this summer, the farming advice publication, which is over two centuries old, sees "cool temperatures and snowy weather conditions" returning to the U.S, forecasting blizzards over New England and northern Central states, as well as over New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
On Wednesday, Farmers' Almanac attributed its chilly prediction of another El Niño brewing towards the end of 2023, with the unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean set to bring snow, sleet and ice precipitation to the continental U.S.
It explained this was because "it could direct the subtropical jet stream into California, translating into copious amounts of rain and snow across the entire Southwest."
The Southwest
Last winter, the region was hit with a series of storms from the Pacific Ocean that brought rare blizzard conditions to Los Angeles in February before devastating flooding swept across California.
Farmers' Almanac managing editor Sandi Duncan said the publication "uses a proprietary formula that considers a variety of factors including sunspot activity and tidal action of the Moon. However, atmospheric phenomena such as El Niño also affect our predictions."
El Niño generally refers to a warming of the ocean surface in the Pacific Ocean, which can affect normal weather patterns in the U.S. as well as worldwide. This usually results in a rise in global temperatures and the aggravation of extreme weather events. The weather pattern has occurred more than 30 times since 1901. Studies have shown that marine heat waves have increased in frequency with climate change.
Farmers' Almanac also predicted that Texans will be hit with "unseasonably cold weather" throughout the first two months of 2024, coupled with a "possible major winter storm" in the middle of January.
Last winter, the state was among those hit by a cold snap in December which caused severe disruption, including power outages and the shutdown of some industrial facilities.
Texas has been one of several states currently experiencing regular temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Experts have said that climate change was contributing to greater volatility in the jet stream—a current of air that divides colder atmospheric patterns toward the poles from warmer climes near the tropics—bending it further northward and southward, and bringing with it hotter highs and colder lows.
Central and Midwest
While the Southwest will see a wetter than normal winter, there will be "cold temperatures and occasional bouts of storminess, bringing widespread rains and snows" for the Great Plains and Rockies, the Farmers' Almanac wrote.
Citing its "mathematical and astronomical formula" for predicting weather in the long term, it predicted "below-average temperatures and lots of snowstorms, sleet, ice, rain" for much of the Great Lakes and Midwest areas of the country, as well as central and northern New England, especially in January and February.
The East Coast
Winter is due to begin on December 21, but the forecaster said it expects stormy conditions before then, and that there may not be an obvious end to winter in 2024, as March will see "wild swings in the thermometer" and "could go out like a lion, with stormy conditions nationwide."
Towards the middle of January, it expects cold temperatures and storms in southern-central states, and a potential mixture of snow, storms and rain for the West Coast. Heavy snow will cover western U.S. states in the first week of February, before the East Coast is faced with snow, cold rain and chilly freezes the following week, the publication said.
Two weather advisories forecast "potential blizzards" in early March in northern Central states and at the same time another East Coast storm will bring "a wintry mess to this area."
Asked about what tips the publication had for those struggling with fuel costs and inflation during the cold, Farmers' Almanac editor Peter Geiger told Newsweek: "My all-time favorite in the 2023 edition suggests using bubble wrap to deal with drafty windows."
He was referencing a submission that had recommended using wrap with medium-to-large bubbles and fixing it to windows using water spray so it can be re-used.
Newsweek approached the publication via email for further comment on Thursday.
