Iowa weather expert questions accuracy of "Farmers Almanac"

Iowa could be in for a repeat of last year’s “old-fashioned winter” according to the new edition of the “Farmer’s Almanac” which hit store shelves this week. Iowa climatologist Harry Hillaker says the Almanac is a fun read but he doesn’t put much stock in such distant forecasts.The 185-year-old Almanac claims its forecasts are right 80-percent of the time, based on things like tides, sunspots and planet positions. It foresees “heaps of snow” beginning in late November. Hillaker says since we’re still in summer, it’s just not realistic to attempt to predict what winter will be like.Hillaker’s crystal ball is still cloudy. He says it’s still a toss-up as to what sort of winter is ahead for Iowa. He says the weather patterns that are based on the warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean, El Nino and La Nina, simply haven’t shown any dominance yet.While the Almanac predicts an “active” winter, it forecasts a drier than normal summer for 2002 for the Midwest region. Fall arrives September 22nd.