One of the stories in the news this week (besides politics and Hurricane Dorian), was the release of the Farmers’ Almanac winter forecast. They get a tremendous amount of press for something that is basically as good as pure chance, according to Popular Mechanics here. Of course climatologists have known for a long time that both the Farmers’ Almanac and the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which provide their own separate forecasts, are essentially right about 50% of the time, which is basically a crapshoot. But a lot of big name non-science type folks (like last year’s CEO of United Airlines) still believe it is accurate science. Don’t be one of those people! Use it for recipes or sunrise/sunset times or enjoy the stories inside, just don’t think of it as a scientific reference.

Source: Commons Wikimedia