Two competing almanacs with national followings are supposed to hit newsstands Monday with long-range weather forecasts for what Californians can expect this coming winter.
Mother Lode residents, ranchers and farmers who believe in almanac forecasts can expect the coming winter to be “balmy & wet” with “below-normal mountain snows” up and down the Central Sierra, according to the 1818 Farmers’ Almanac, published in Lewiston, Maine, and the 1792 Old Farmer’s Almanac, published in Dublin, New Hampshire.
Forecasting whether the Sierra Nevada range will have a wet or dry winter is serious business for California’s $50 billion agriculture industry, the state Department of Water Resources, hundreds of water agencies up and down the state, and more than 39 million residents statewide.
