False spring: Maybe not this time

You’ve heard it said in the Pacific Northwest that, during the winter, we see a long stretch of bleak weather followed by a temporary rise in temperatures around mid-January, a “false winter” as it is sometimes called. Well, according to the Farmer’s Almanac for 2022-2023, the unusually warm weather we’ve been experiencing the past few weeks may just be the herald of real, honest-to-goodness spring.

Granted, meteorological predictions aren’t perfect, but Farmer’s Almanac’s prediction for November and December in 2022 were fairly accurate, foretelling that we would see most of our snowfall through that period. The recorded temperatures and snowfall between January of 2022 and this year are comparatively similar. In fact, the data for February of 2022 suggests that we may be seeing a similar overall trend.

Farmer’s Almanac predicted that “Winter temperatures will be milder than normal, with slightly below-normal precipitation and snowfall. The coldest periods will be in mid-November and early and late December. The snowiest period will be in mid-November.” False-spring” may be real spring after all.

— Lucas Walsh is a Free Press Publishing editor. To reach him, email editor@cheneyfreepress.

com.