Farmers' Almanac predicts snowy Alberta winter

While meteorologists are calling for a relatively warm, dry winter in the Prairies this year's Farmers' Almanac says Albertansshould begetting ready for just the opposite.

"Cold and very snowy," said Peter Geiger, editor of the Farmers' Almanac and the Canadian Farmers' Almanac.

"We think that the precipitation is going to be above average, or at least the snowfall."

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I know yourweather can be good, bad and nothing.- Peter Geiger, editor of Farmers' Almanac

Though Geigerlives in Lewiston,Maine,he's kept a closeeye onAlberta's changingweather patternssince he visited the province in 1987 the year before the Calgary Olympics.

"I predicted it would be mild the year before and then you got no snow, and then the next year I nailed what it was supposed to be, so I know yourweather can be good, bad and nothing."

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Geiger says Alberta farmerscan expect relatively good weather for the fall and "significant rain" by mid-November.

"The middle part of December is going to be fairly stormy,even with snow," he said.

The Farmers' Almanac, not to be confused with the Old Farmer's Almanac, has been publishing itsNorth American weather predictions since 1818.

"They're basedupon sun-spot activity, planet positions, the effect the moon has on the earth and a formula we've had for almost 200 years. And we do the weather twoyears in advance," said Geiger.

In all that time,Geiger says they've only had seven forecasters and the current one has been at it for the last 30 years.