• After witnessing the continued decrease of involvement in the SpotterNetwork staff in serving SN members with troubleshooting issues recently, I have unilaterally decided to terminate the relationship between SpotterNetwork's support and Stormtrack. I have witnessed multiple users unable to receive support weeks after initiating help threads on the forum. I find this lack of response from SpotterNetwork officials disappointing and a failure to hold up their end of the agreement that was made years ago, before I took over management of this site. In my opinion, having Stormtrack users sit and wait for so long to receive help on SpotterNetwork issues on the Stormtrack forums reflects poorly not only on SpotterNetwork, but on Stormtrack and (by association) me as well. Since the issue has not been satisfactorily addressed, I no longer wish for the Stormtrack forum to be associated with SpotterNetwork.

    I apologize to those who continue to have issues with the service and continue to see their issues left unaddressed. Please understand that the connection between ST and SN was put in place long before I had any say over it. But now that I am the "captain of this ship," it is within my right (nay, duty) to make adjustments as I see necessary. Ending this relationship is such an adjustment.

    For those who continue to need help, I recommend navigating a web browswer to SpotterNetwork's About page, and seeking the individuals listed on that page for all further inquiries about SpotterNetwork.

    From this moment forward, the SpotterNetwork sub-forum has been hidden/deleted and there will be no assurance that any SpotterNetwork issues brought up in any of Stormtrack's other sub-forums will be addressed. Do not rely on Stormtrack for help with SpotterNetwork issues.

    Sincerely, Jeff D.

The Farmers' Almanac

Joined
Jul 2, 2004
Messages
1,781
Location
Hastings, Michigan
Yesterday, for lack of anything substantive to blog about, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post titled The Farmers' Alamanc, Woolly Bears, and Government Cover-Ups (which I'm shamelessly plugging here for those who could use a grin).

While I was poking gentle fun at the FA's nigh-miraculous long-range forecasting wizardry, writing the article got me to thinking: where do they get their information from? I'm pretty certain that the weather sages at Farmers' Almanac aren't consulting woolly bear caterpillars, but have some reasonable grounds for making their predictions, no doubt based on global climatology and oceanography.

So, my question: how does the Farmers' Almanac come up with its forecasts for two months out and longer? Anyone know?
 
I saw Woolly Bears on three different occasions last week, each had much more brown than black. According to legend this indicates a mild winter is on the way.
 
http://www.farmersalmanac.com/weather/a/how-does-the-farmers-almanac-make-its-weather-predictions

I captured their October/November forecast for the Great Lakes on September 30th. October was supposed to be a mild with near-drought conditions through Michigan. It's been very cold and very wet.

Ahhh...a secret formula dating back to 1818! With sunspots and other astronomical goodies in the mix, no less. I knew it had to be something like that. Kind of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, eleven-secret-herbs-and-spices approach, with a little eye of newt thrown in for good measure.

Thanks for the link, rdale. Though I'm kind of disappointed--I honestly was hoping for something more forthright from the Almanac. Guess I'll stick with the woolly bears. Since it's merely a numbers game, they're probably just as dependable.
 
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