Each year we are asked to report on our winter weather predictions. Soon thereafter the National Weather Service (NWS), woollybear caterpillars and others weigh in with their projections with periodic updates. This year we are clearly calling of a Cold Winter - Coast to Coast with a couple exceptions.

More recently, the NWS reports - “The strengthening El Niño event will influence the position and strength of the jet streams over the Pacific Ocean, which in turn will impact the winter precipitation and temperature patterns…this event is likely to result in fewer cold air outbreaks than would be expected in a typical non El Niño winter.” In a few words - mild winter.

On the news today, a weatherman suggested that the way the weather has started and the patterns as they exist could lead to some huge snowstorms. With early snows in the Northern Plain States, Upper

Midwest, Buffalo and last night in Maine, and temps in the mid 60s in Florida, we appear to be heading toward winter. The Farmers’ Almanac doesn’t make changes as time passes. We do our predictions to years in advance and have lived with this for almost 200 years.

Last winter the jet streams moved quickly. In order to get that artic cold we need for conditions to cool over northern Canada and then have the jet streams drive it through the US. We think this is the situation. This morning I was asked about acorns - one of my 20 Signs of a hard winter.

I was wondering if there was a meaning behind all the acorns that have fallen. I haven’t seen so many acorns on the ground in all my life. We’ve had tons more fall this year than ever before. Is there a reason for this? Does this mean a colder winter than usual or does this mean a milder than usual winter? Is something behind this? ( S.B. from Annandale, Va.)

I was thinking about this over the weekend. The saying is “an unusual abundance of acorns” is a sign of a very rough winter. The theory is that the more acorns, the more food for the squirrels. I have also read that every so many years (I recall 7) oak trees just have a major production of acorns. Last fall my trees were dropping acorns like rain but it was a mild winter. This year very few… we will see. The answer is the greater the abundance of acorn, the rougher the winter. Time will tell.

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