If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, the almanac says you’re in luck. The 2024 Old Farmer’s Almanac has released its predictions for the 2023-2024 winter months, and they say snow will be more likely in areas typically seeing cold weather.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac is predicting precipitation and snowfall will be slightly above average for the Heartland. They also predict the snowiest period will occur in late December and early to mid-January. Their words exactly, “Expect a white Christmas this year!”
They also are predicting a colder-than-normal winter. The Old Farmer’s Almanac says the cold blasts will happen in early and late December, early and late January and early February.
A white Christmas isn’t the norm for southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. The area averages about one white Christmas every 10 years. The term white Christmas means one inch of snow is on the ground on Christmas day.
In 2022, much of the Ozarks had a white Christmas when three inches of snow fell on December 22 and was followed up with brutally cold temperatures, dipping to -8° two nights in a row.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac claims their methodology comes from a secret formula invented by founder Robert B. Thomas in 1792 (when George Washington was president). Despite the rumors of the formula being weather lore like acorns, apples wooly worms and persimmons, they claim it is much more scientific.
Thomas believed the weather is influenced greatly be sunspots, which are magnetic storms on the surface of the sun. Over the years, the almanac has refined and enhanced the formula with technology and modern scientific calculations. The almanac claims to use three scientific disciplines for their long-range predictions:
- solar science, the study of sunspots and other solar activity
- climatology, the study of prevailing weather patterns
- meteorology, the study of the atmosphere
The Old Farmer’s Almanac has a self-proclaimed accuracy of nearly 80%.
