Long-Term Forecast For Winter In PA: Official Gov't Prediction

PENNSYLVANIA — Another day, another long-term prediction for the upcoming winter in Pennsylvania. But this time, it's the official government forecast.

Meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have released their winter forecast for 2019-20. And the news is good if you don't love the cold and snow.

The official government prediction is for a warmer than normal season in Pennsylvania, with more precipitation than average.

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 it 2019-20 winter forecast, which it released Thursday.

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 Pennsylvania, though, periods of cold and snowfall are still possible.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration isn’t the only organization that’s released a 2019-20 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 says that Pennsylvania will have a "frosty, wet, and white" winter.

The Old Farmer's Almanac, meanwhile, says that this winter will be "wet and wild."

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.

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