I am going to be doing quite a bit fall planting - shrubs and perennials. Wanted to get a "crystal ball" view of the upcoming weather - want my investment to last through the winter. Is the Old Farmer's Almanac a reliable source for long range forecasts or is flipping a coin a better option??
Liz
Detailed 2007 Long-Range Forecast
for the Southeast Region
Includes predictions for all or portions of Alabama (Fort Mitchell, Gordon, Phenix City, Seale, Smiths Station), Florida (Chattahoochee), Georgia (Atlanta, Columbus, Macon, Sandy Springs, Savannah), North Carolina (Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh, Winston-Salem), South Carolina (Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston), Virginia (Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach).
Winter will be colder and wetter than normal, on average, with above-normal snowfall, especially in eastern North Carolina. The coldest periods will be in mid- to late December, early January, and early and late February. The heaviest and most widespread snowfalls will occur around Christmas and in early and mid-January and late February.
April and May will be warmer and drier than normal, on average, with an early heat wave in mid-May.
Summer temperatures will be about a degree below normal, on average, with above-normal rainfall. The hottest temperatures will occur in mid- to late July and late August.
September and October will be cooler and drier than normal, on average, with especially chilly temperatures in the second half of October.
Old Farmer's Almanac Long Range Forecast for the Southeast
I have found them to be uncannily accurate. When planning my daughter's outdoor wedding in December 2004, I was hoping they were a day or two off in the predictions. As luck would NOT have it, it was right on the money. The morning started off warm and the cold front blew in during the ceremony, and I mean blew in. Couldn't even light the unity candles. Thank goodness we had heaters in the enclosed tent, because the temperature dropped 25 degrees in a few hours. Just like the almanac said it would that week.
They seem to be better than the weathermen.
This is actually really good information to know, especially since we'll be renovating then and also I plant to winter sow up a storm. You need to know, especially in the South when the best time to get your seeds in to allow time for cold exposure. This tells me to start a bit early!
GGG
DH said he had a feeling this was going to be a "colder than normal" winter. Of course, he said that last year and we barely had any cold weather at all. Or maybe my memory conveniently forgets freezing temps. Wonder if we will get any frozen precip???
It is interesting living in the south, isn't it? The rest of the country thinks we live in sunshine all the time but we do have quite a change in weather patterns. I ordered some pine straw mulch to fill in some bare areas, but now I think I better top off all the beds to protect tender root systems.
You know what catches people here? A cold end of Feb. We can get 70-75 days in Feb. and everyone gets to excited and thinks winter is over then blam. We don't get snow or ice storms but we can hit the high 20's in Feb. I see many people start fertilizing their lawn in a warm Feb and that is the worst thing you can do.
my husbands grandmother said the greer almanac said the same thing. i hope we get some snow here this year! we haven't had snow to speak of in about 4-5 years! i miss it sooooo much. thanks for sharing this information!
kelly
You miss snow... oh no! I am originally from Rhode Island and remember many years of waist high snow and endless scraping of ice off the car windows. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Moving to the south was the best thing - an occasional dusting of snow and that is it! I wouldn't mind a white Christmas but the day after it has to melt! hehehe
Liz
You know Im a Georgia born and bred , to the bone! I love Our weather and even the occasional snow! It gives us something to talk about !LOL!
The thing I dread is getting another Ice storm like year before last! That was the worse thing I ever had to live through,( even the tornado back in '97)! My young pine trees are just now recuperating and trying to stand up straight again! I dont think the Electric company EVER had to work so hard before replacing transformers and lines!
I can still hear the dead silence around our home and then all the explosions of transformers at on time! That was so scary, Not to mention the tree that came down on our house!
Eufala, I know what you are talking about. Year before last the home we were in was surrounded by pine-filled woods, and every time a limb would break it sounded like a shotgun blast echoing through the woods. Thank the Lord we didn't have any fall on our house, though. We were without power for 3 days, but we were luckier than most, as we had a really nice kerosene heater to keep our living area warm. I guess I will have to go buy another one this year, as I loaned it to someone who was going through a rough time last year and her gas was turned off - had no heat - unfortunately I never got it back. I have a feeling we are going to need it this winter.
It sure was pretty, though. I know it must have been beautiful up your way.
Just heard on the local news that my neck of the woods - Newnan, Peachtree City area may get "patchy frost" tonight. Advising to protect tender plants.
Heres a picture of those clouds that went over us yesterday! We had a bunch of wind that knocked some tin off the hen house but no damage! We saw the clouds go east of us and then heard about the damage that went with them over around Elberton! Hope everyone made out okay!
The clouds look so pretty in these pictures but they were really black and ominous looking!
one more!
Beautiful pictures of a horrifying event. Never underestimate mother nature!