Farmers Almanac Chimes in on Winter Weather

I’m working through my reading pile.  This story from the newswires caught my eye a couple of days ago:

Households worried about the high cost of keeping warm this winter will draw little comfort from the Farmers’ Almanac, which predicts below-average temperatures for most of the U.S.

"Numb’s the word," says the 192-year-old publication, which claims an accuracy rate of 80 to 85 percent for its forecasts that are prepared two years in advance.

The almanac’s 2009 edition, which goes on sale Tuesday, says at least two-thirds of the country can expect colder than average temperatures, with only the Far West and Southeast in line for near-normal readings.

I’m not sure that I buy the claimed accuracy rate…so perhaps my wife and I won’t start putting valuables into hock to boost the heating oil budget.

However, we did a few days ago get our pre-season fill-up of heating oil.  Two hundred gallons of oil was never cheap.  But these days….ouch!