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Winter Is Coming: Old Farmer’s Almanac Sees ‘Cold, Snowy’ Season Ahead For North Texas

Old Farmer's Almanac

It's right there on the map in the 2018 version of the "Old Farmer's Almanac" -- a giant snowflake covering North Texas.

The annual forecast from the 226-year-old publication is out. And it's sending chills through folks in Dallas-Fort Worth with its swath of "cold, snowy" winter weather blowing through these parts.

For generations, real-life farmers have made an annual ritual of thumbing through the Almanac, a paperback compendium of everything from "Secrets of the Zodiac" to "Gestation and Mating Tables." (FYI: Sows take an average of 115 days to make a piglet.)

How well do these way-too-early forecasts pan out? Well ... the Almanac itself claims an 80 percent accuracy rate. a few years back, and while the editors still use some old-school voodoo involving sunspots, they also consider newfangled factors like satellite data and jet-stream patterns.

So it's fine to stock up on sweaters. But snow shovels? Well...

Rick Holter was ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº's vice president of news. He oversaw news coverage on all of ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº's platforms – radio, digital and television. Under his leadership, ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº earned more than 200 local, regional and national awards, including the station's first two national Edward R. Murrow Awards. He and the ËÄ»¢Ó°Ôº staff were also part of NPR's Ebola-coverage team that won a George Foster Peabody Award, broadcasting's highest honor.