Wet winter predicted, not so cold

Fall is just about to hit Saskatchewan for another year, but new predictions on the season after autumn are now coming out.

The 2022 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac is detailing how this winter may look on the Canadian prairies.

“Not so cold as normal and ever so slightly wetter than normal, and by that I mean more precipitation, but less of it in the form of snow,” explained the almanac’s managing editor, Jack Burnett.

He said that means sleet and freezing rain could fall a bit more often during the winter months.

Burnett clarified to likely little amazement that Saskatchewan will still see snow and blizzards.

“We see the really heavy-duty snow showing up at the end of November, in the middle of January and at the beginning of March,” he said.

Unsurprisingly, he said the “hardcore” cold will show up in January.

Burnett said three elements are used when almanac staff are putting together their forecast. The first is meteorology, which he describes as a localized type of weather, air masses and how they’re affected by topography. Next is climatology, or long-term weather trends in an area. Lastly, solar science or solar radiation is used.

Burnett said they’ll put the data into computers and this formula or recipe eventually produces a forecast that’s spit out of the computer.

Just because something pops out doesn’t mean it’s perfectly accurate.

“As the old saying goes, the only certain thing about predicting the weather is that it’s uncertain,” joked Burnett.

Switching to a more serious tone, he said they’re usually right four out of five times with their forecast.

The almanac is now out. Burnett said the book can be picked up wherever books are sold.