By Pam Reinig
Register Editor
Next year, I’m paying closer attention to the Farmer’s Almanac. I don’t know how often their long-range weather predictions have been correct since they started publishing in 1818 but they certainly nailed it this winter.
The almanac’s forecast for the current season was released August 21, 2018. It predicted “teeth chattering cold and plentiful snow” for the Midwestern states. When we made it through November, December and into early January without experiencing either, I was ready to thumb my nose at the venerable publication.
And then, January 11, 2019, happened. That’s the date of the first significant snowfall across the state—and once it started snowing, it hasn’t stopped. And as far as “teeth chattering cold” goes, well, new records were set January 29-31 when wind chills reached -62 degrees in Elkader. That shattered the old record of -47 set in January 1996.