- It’s That Time Of Season: Old Farmer’s Almanac Predictions For Atlantic Canada 2025
By Andrew Macdonald
In Atlantic Canada, we love to talk about the weather.
The 2025 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac is now being retailed at stores selling books and magazines. The New Hampshire-based magazine is also stocked at hardware stores such as Home Hardware.
Across the country, the magazine’s Canadian edition predicts a ‘winter with heart of cold’.
“The Almanac is forecasting a winter with a heart of cold although big freezes and heavy snowfall will be centred in Ontario and eastern Manitoba, while most of the rest of the country will get a reprieve from snow shovelling and super-cold temperatures,” says the magazine.
“‘Temperate’ is on tap for most of the country this winter, but let it snow in Ontario!,” proclaimed Carol Connare, the Almanac’s editor.
“While Saskatchewan will be (mostly) spared the mountains of snow arriving to (Ontario), the area should brace for below-average temperatures, as should southern sections of British Columbia and Alberta. The most southerly portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan will also be all wet this winter, with a few snowstorms interspersed with other types of precipitation.”
Old Farmer’s Almanac’s 2024-2025 weather predictions are contained in the latest edition of the New Hampshire-based periodical. (Contributed).
Atlantic Canada Prediction
“Winter will not be as cold as usual in the easternmost region of Canada. The coldest times will come during early to mid-December and late February,” says the Almanac.
Will There Be Snow In Atlantic Canada?
“Precipitation will be above normal in the east and below in the west. Snowfall will be below normal throughout the region, offering a break from endless shovelling. It will be snowiest in early December, mid-January, and early and late February.”
The 2025 Almanac is editor-in-chief Connare’s first issue as top editor at the employee-owned magazine, under the umbrella of Yankee Publishing.
In a news chat with The Macdonald Notebook, editor-in-chief Carol Connare previewed the region’s forecast for the benefit of my readers. The 2025 edition is her first Almanac edition since becoming top editor at the employee-owned enterprise, under the umbrella of Yankee Publishing. (Contributed).
“Overall, what we are saying is that winter is going to be milder for all of Atlantic Canada. What that means is less precipitation than normal, and warmer temperatures than normal, and that is overall. We’re saying precipitation will be less the farther west you go, and farther east, more precipitation,” Connare told me.
“We are calling for the snowiest periods to be early December, mid-January and early and late February,” she added.
“The cold snaps, we are saying — mid-December and late February.”
Summer 2025 — A Wet Season
Summer 2025’s prediction is for lots of rain in Atlantic Canada, she said. That is a boon to vegetable and flower enthusiasts: “People who grow things do not mind if they do not have to water so often.”
The Almanac calls its weather prognosis ‘predictions’, and claims its forecasts are 80 per cent accurate.
Last winter, it predicted a winter white-out in Atlantic Canada and, certainly, parts of Nova Scotia — particularly Antigonish and parts of New Brunswick like Moncton — got lots of snow. Halifax last winter only had three or four snowstorms.
Speaking of last year’s predictions, and the accuracy of those weather patterns, Connare says the magazine’s predictions were accurate for some zones.
“It depends on where you live. We have different regions. Every year in the Almanac, we do have a page – in the Canadian edition it is on page 97 (where it writes about the accuracy of the past year’s predictions)”, she explained.
‘Younger Generations Turning To Gardening’
That is certainly the case in the Maritimes, where younger generations are getting into growing veggies and flowers.
In Chester, the charming garden centre, Downey’s Pitcher Centre, has seen more younger folks since the pandemic four years ago. Its hard-working owner and operator Walter Downey will tell you he has seen newer folk take up the green thumb activities.
Chester’s Walter Downey is seeing more younger customers at his garden centre. (The Notebook photo).
At the Almanac, they are also reaching a younger audience, and that is sustainable for a gardening and weather magazine that was founded in 1792.
The Almanac’s editor says thousands of Atlantic Canadians read the publication, which has weather predictions and green gardening tips.
“For us, just like every publisher, we are reaching out to younger audiences. They are really resonating with a lot of our content. There is a lot of younger folks who really want to live sustainably, (and) they are interested in permaculture,” said Connare, who added: “That’s really the thing we have been doing since 1792.”
While there are those with traditional gardens, some folk are getting into growing things with raised beds, container gardening — “all kinds of things that are making gardening more accessible. People are fitting gardening into their lives.
“My favourite vegetable? Oh, that is tough,” replied the Almanac editor when I asked her fave veggie. Then I asked her three most fave veggies: “Peppers, tomatoes…and I just love pumpkin. I love to eat pumpkin. I cook with pumpkin. It is different than the canned pumpkin. And if you grow too many, like I do, you can also array them around your yard and house (as decor).”
Besides the weather forecasts, the 2025 edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac says the favourite vegetable among North American growers is the tomato.
The Almanac’s Canadian edition also explores how tomatoes, once dismissed as “odious and repelling-smelling berries,” became North America’s favourite.
Maritimers Love To Talk About The Weather
In my chat with Connare, I mentioned that Atlantic Canadians love to talk about the weather. I asked, “Do Atlantic Canadians talk more about the weather than residents of other regions of Canada?”
“That’s a good question,” Connare replied. “We have been talking to people all over Canada, in every province, and doing different (media) interviews, and (media) appearances. There are a lot of people who like to talk about the weather.
“But, I think you might be right, there might be a little bit of a weather fixation in Atlantic Canada. I am not sure what that is about? Maybe that is like going back to seafaring years.”
Certainly, farmers everywhere and gardening enthusiasts pay attention to the weather predictions in the Almanac, she says. “Growers really like to think about what they can plan for.”
Weather followers, here or across the country, tend to like weather predictions because they might be outdoor enthusiasts.
“It touches on anyone who is an outdoor enthusiast. We have many pages devoted to the night sky. Well, you can’t see much if the sky is not clear. So that is a good reason to know what is happening with the weather,” she added.
“Certainly, even people who like to be outdoors in nature, are nature observers, they are also thinking about the weather. Maybe to go travelling, maybe go bird watching, or something like that, or to go see a partial eclipse. Those are things that are very weather dependent, obviously,” said Connare.
How Does The Almanac Predict The Weather?
With a claim that 80 per cent of its long-range weather predictions are accurate, how does the Old Farmer’s Almanac come to its weather conclusions, including its famed and legendary long-range forecasts?
Note, it does not call these ‘forecasts’ but uses the term, ‘predictions’.
“Ever since our first edition in 1792, the Old Farmer’s Almanac has used a unique, proprietary method of predicting weather that we still use today, though nowadays we use modern technology,” says the Almanac in its 2025 edition.
“We employ three scientific disciplines: Solar science, the study of sunspots (magnetic storms on the Sun’s surface); climatology, the study of prevailing weather patterns; and meteorology, the study of the atmosphere (what short-range weather forecasters do),’ the magazine explains.
“We predict weather trends and events by comparing solar patterns and historical weather conditions with current solar activity. We’re looking at ‘normals’ or ‘averages’ over decades, not just how the weather compared to last year,” says the Almanac.
“For the 2024-2025 winter season, our forecasts are based on the latest period, 1991 through 2020.”
