Connecticut Winter Weather Forecast Is In

CONNECTICUT — Winter is coming. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its winter forecast and a warmer-than-usual season is expected. Not a single section of the United States is expected to have colder than usual temperatures this winter, but some areas will experience more rain.

"Wetter than average conditions are most likely in Alaska and Hawaii this winter, along with portions of the Northern Plains, Upper Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes and parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast," the agency said in its recently released winter forecast.

Connecticut's precipitation looks to be normal this winter, according to the report. The government organization stays away from projecting seasonal snowfall accumulations as snow forecasts are generally impossible to predict until the week prior. Even during a warmer than usual winter in Connecticut, though, periods of cold and snowfall are still possible.

What do The Farmers’ Almanac and Old Farmer’s Almanac predict for the winter?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration isn’t the only organization that’s released a prediction, but consensus can be hard to find when it comes to weather.

Followers of the Farmers’ Almanac for instance, are bracing for a snowy, bone-chilling season. Meanwhile, forecasters at the rival Old Farmer’s Almanac are predicting more rain than snow.

The two meteorological publishers have almost identical names, but their long-range forecasts could not be more different.

The Farmers' Almanac, which released its prediction on Aug. 26, expects colder-than-normal temperatures and a lot of snow, with the frostiest snap coming during the last week of January and stretching into February. Winter weather will last into April.

But the Old Farmer's Almanac, which unveiled its forecast earlier in the month, expects the Northeast to be wet and warmer than normal.

"The middle of the country and New England can bank on a slush fund as 'more wet than white' conditions will leave sludgy messes that freeze during the overnights," its forecast says.

Both outfits use so-called “secret formulas” to predict the weather that they keep closely guarded, and only time — and winter — will tell which one has it right.