Farmers’ Almanac Predicts Cool Spring Will Give Way to Steamy Summer

April 23, 2018 - Lewiston, ME:  After accurately predicting the last winter’s “Cold, Wet and Wild” conditions, and a cool, late, wet spring, the Farmers’ Almanac is releasing its summer forecast, which may make people happier that spring is cool and wet.

According to the calendar and the pages of the Farmers’ Almanac, summer officially begins on Thursday, June 21, 2018, at 6:07 a.m. EDT. This is the date of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in terms of daylight, but it’s not always the date when summer weather instantly arrives.

So what’s in store for this upcoming summer?

Check out Editor Peter Geiger talking about the summer forecast.

According to its time-tested, 200-year-old weather formula, the 2018 Farmers’ Almanac is calling for a good old-fashioned “keep-the-lemonade-coming” kind of summer, with warmer-than-normal temperatures for most of the nation. The hottest areas will be the in middle and western areas of the country, especially in July. The Southeast is also in for a steamy season with many hazy, hot, and humid days forecast. Only areas in the Northwest will see cooler-than-average summer temperatures.

Stormy or Parched?
Above-average precipitation for the summer, mainly due to locally heavy thunderstorms, is the outlook for much of the South Central United States. The Farmers’ Almanac is also predicting many bouts of heavy precipitation across a swath covering parts of the Rockies, Plains, and Midwest, east to the Mid-Atlantic. Elsewhere, including New England and the Northeast, anticipate below-normal precipitation, which may lead to drought conditions.

How does the Farmers’ Almanac make its predictions?
“We base our predictions on a specific and reliable set of rules that were developed back in 1818 by David Young, the Farmers’ Almanac’s first editor,” reveals editor Peter Geiger, Philom. “The formula has been altered slightly over the years and now includes both mathematical and astronomical factors.” One of the key components of the Farmers’ Almanac’s proprietary weather predicting formula is the Moon and its motions. The Moon has a proven influence on tides, and it is the Almanac’s belief that it also has tidal effects on our atmosphere. But the highly-guarded formula also looks at sunspot activity and other factors.

According the 2018 edition of the Farmers Almanac, last-minute weather conditions sometimes come into play and occasionally throw a warm or cold front into the Almanac’s long-range outlooks. However, the predictions have been known to be 80–85% accurate, and continue to be a valuable planning tool for the year ahead. For vacationers, outdoor weather sport enthusiasts, gardeners, planners, and brides-to-be, the Farmers’ Almanac continues to be a trusted source for long-range weather predictions.

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Source: Farmers’ Almanac