the Farmers’ Almanac is predicting the “return of the BRRR.”
Frigid temperatures are expected for much of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and westernmost Ontario.
Newfoundland and Labrador will experience icy temperatures but won’t be nearly as cold as the middle of the country.
British Columbia will luckily dodge this frosty forecast
Do people still take the Farmer’s Almanac seriously? These weather predictions are based on things like sunspots and observations on the bushiness of squirrel tails. In a word, it’s pseudoscience, and it is accurate in the same way as astrology.
I’ve heard they use modern methods these days.
I’ve heard
Lemme guess, from an astrological farmer?
Just a friendly FYI that the Almanacs have essentially no skill in seasonal forecasting and rely on vagaries and generalities to try and convince readers that the wide net the cast to try and capture chance is actually skill.
Even physical sciences based forecasts can struggle to hit 50-60% skill on seasonal forecasts. Even in the highlights posted here:
- Of course the Canadian Prairies and NW Ontario will be cold; they’re some of the coldest places in North America in winter, often even colder than many parts of the Arctic as the northwest flow along the western flank of the Polar Vortex helps to funnel some of the coldest air on the planet in Siberia across the pole and through the Canadian Arctic southwards through the Prairies.
- Newfoundland and Labrador routinely get blasts of bitterly cold Arctic air from northern Quebec and Baffin Island as passing lows lift northwards into Baffin Island and occlude into the Polar Vortex, but it’s softened by the relatively warm waters of the adjacent Atlantic waters. Of course they won’t be as cold as the land-locked continental regions to the west.
- B.C., especially the western half of it, is among the warmest places in Canada in winter with the cold air routinely kept at bay by a relatively mild onshore flow from the Pacific. The exception is when a particularly strong Arctic outbreak develops over western Canada and a potent high develops over the Rockies which provides a strong surface outflow that drives the Arctic air over the Rockies and out through the coast.
This “forecast” literally just describes essentially every winter in Canada. The fact this pseudoscience that is demonstrably unskilled gets so much visibility each year.
I’m fine with that. Cold winters are supposed to be normal out here anyway.
It’ll help slow the encroachment of invasive plant and animal species from other parts of the continent.
The problem is if it is too cold for too long, things break. When I’ve experienced long durations of extremely cold weather, things get bad.
Ice accumulates inside, vents freeze over, cars don’t start, etc. It’s not good.
But it is our former normal … and I’ll be happier to see that again.
Depends what we’re getting. A nice, median, general cold would be good. But an average cold that includes several -40 storms isn’t great, and is probably what we’ll get.
The only reason it wouldn’t be great is that unhoused people will die because the collective “we” don’t give a shit about them.
Other than that I don’t see an issue.
