Farmer’s Almanac Predicts An Unusually Snowy 2023-2024 Winter in Boise

When it comes to Boise’s weather, you’ll find yourself at peace more often if you just accept the fact that if you don’t like the weather right now, wait five minutes…it’ll change. Does that stop the Famer’s Almanac from trying to make a long-range forecast? Absolutely not! 

In fact, they’re not waiting for the return of pumpkin spice, scarves and changing leaves to make a prediction about what this winter will look like. They published their” Farmer’s Almanac Winter 2024 Extended Weather Forecast” this week. Every year, Farmer’s Almanac has some sort of buzzworthy “theme” they use. Last year it was “Shake! Shiver! Shovel!” In 2021 it was “Frosty Flip-Flop Winter.” And in 2020, when everyone needed some good news they went with “Winter of the Great Divide.” 

This year? “The Brrr is Back!” In other words, last winter was warmer than initially anticipated and this year, they feel like the frigid temperatures and snow will be back across much of the United States. When it comes to the “Northwest Region” which includes Idaho, Washington and Oregon, they’re calling for “seasonably cold, wet” conditions. Their weather prognosticator goes on to say that our region will be unusually snowy and predicts that heavy mountain snow will hit us the first week of February.” 

Talk about vague! What does seasonably cold mean? Here’s a look at what the average temperatures during meteorological winter are like in the Boise area. 

How about “unusually snowy.” We’d have to imagine it’s snow totals that push past these. 

How Does The Farmers Almanac Predict Weather?

If you're trusting the Farmer's Almanac, just remember that you're trusting a "weather prognosticator" with a fake name. They say they give him the fake name to protect their forecasting formula that we know includes things like sunspot activity, tidal action of the moon and the position of the planets...and the forecasts are calculated two years in advance with no edits made. And they claim they’re accurate 80-85% of the time. 

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How much faith should place in them? Well, if you ask the Treasure Valley’s favorite weatherman, Kody at Treasure Valley Weather HQ…you shouldn’t. Just read his caption from he posted the map earlier this week. The comment section of this post is a riot and worth reading. It can best be summed up by Kody’s comment “Anything predicted past 10 days is hot garbage.” 

How Did The Farmer’s Almanac Do Last Year?

Farmer’s Almanac called their 2022-2023 forecast a success. They called for brisk temperatures and normal precipitation for our area.. December was about four degrees cooler than average. January was two degrees warmer. February was a degree cooler than average. We got almost four inches of snow above average in December, just over two less than average in January and normal snowfall in February. 

The one part of their forecast they nailed? That March was going to end like a lion with a variety of weather conditions. They said to expect heavy snow and sure enough, we got 2.9” of snow on March 30. 

It’s up to you whether or not you believe their forecast. Just remember, these are the same folks who say that these things mean that winter will be a nightmare if you see them happen.