Forecasters say the season may be warmer than normal
Just as Christmas ornaments are starting to crowd out the Halloween decorations, ice scrapers and snow shovels are appearing among the rakes and leaf blowers.
How much use they will get this winter could depend on which forecast comes closest to being right.
If you ask Lee Hendricks, a meteorologist with the Pittsburgh office of the National Weather Service, there's a chance that a warmer-than-average winter awaits the Pittsburgh area.
The Old Farmer's Almanac 2019 forecast is similar, said Ben Kilbride, an editorial assistant with the almanac based in Dublin, N.H., and in its 227th year.
“For your area, it's going to be warmer than normal this winter,” said Kilbride.
“Remember, it's still winter, but it will be a few degrees warmer than average. And it's going to be a normal amount of snowfall,” he said.
“The middle of December to early January and then at the beginning of February will be the snowiest periods,” he said.Kilbride said the almanac forecasts the coldest weather from around mid-December into early January and then late January to early February.“As for a white Christmas, it looks like there is a pretty good chance of it,” Kilbride said.National Weather Service meteorologist Hendricks won't pin it down that close.He said, “What we do is basically a three-month outlook for November, December and January.“We are looking at a 33-percent chance of above-normal temperatures for this period, and there is little indication one way or the other on precipitation,” he said. “We are looking at the overall atmospheric patterns across the Northern Hemisphere.”But there is a glitch in this balmy forecast.<i>This is an excerpt — read the full story in Sunday's Butler Eagle.</i>
