Some folks swear by this thing. I see it all the time at my local grocery. My guess is that it’s just a booklet full of old folklore and hit-or-miss predictions, but folks sure seem almost in awe of it around here (rural Minnesota).
What’s the deal with it?
You got it right.
There are two ways to predict the weather. One is to look at long term trends over many, many years. For example, if July is hot, how often is December snowy. Of course, the other method is to use satellite and weather balloon data etc. The Farmers Almanac is going to have a good reputation because half the time they are right (not much different than the modern methods).
It’s my go-to source of funny new jokes to impress my blind date with.
Cite? (I doubt they’re right that often, and I certainly doubt their accuracy is on par with modern methods.)
Do you have a cite that their predictions are about as accurate as modern methods? I would definitely think modern methods are better by quite a bit.
That stuff is fun to read whilst in the porcelain facility, but I used to buy it for the tables in it. Things like sunrise/sunset times, phases of the moon, etc. I look all that up on WeatherUnderground nowadays. Is the 2009 Farmer’s Almanac out now? I should get one, just for grins.
I don’t have a cite for their accuracy, but would like to point out that FA is predicting the weather a year in advance. “Modern methods” are pretty accurate out to five days or so, but you can’t go much farther without falling back on the long-term statistics.
(Multi-Quote is a way-cool feature! I’m glad I tried it.)