If the farmers almanacs’ forecasts are accurate, you could be rolling on a first-ice road trip in late November and fishing closer to home by early December. Long-range predictions indicate an early, extra-cold winter.
“Sweaters and snow shovels should be unpacked early and kept close by throughout the season,” said Janice Stillman, editor of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Ice anglers can add to that list jigging spoons, ice shelters, sonar units and augers.
“A decline in solar activity, combined with ocean-atmosphere patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic, will result in below-normal temperatures and above-normal snowfall during most of the winter across much of the United States,” forecasts The Old Farmer’s Almanac, North America’s oldest continuously published periodical.
Farmer’s Almanac (a different publication with a similar name) issued a similar prediction: “For 2013–2014, we are forecasting a winter that will experience below average temperatures for about two-thirds of the nation. A large area of below-normal temperatures will predominate from roughly east of the Continental Divide to the Appalachians, north and east through New England. Coldest temperatures will be over the Northern Plains on east into the Great Lakes.”
Take those predictions with a grain of salt, however. As Mother Nature Network reportedly recently, “despite [Farmers’ Almanac’s’] long history and claim of 80 percent accuracy, it doesn’t really have all that good a track record.” To that end, MNN quoted Washington Post’s Jason Samenow, who wrote in the Capital Weather Gang blog that "no one — with any degree of accuracy‚ can predict the specific days when cold snaps or storms will occur months in advance." The Farmer’s Almanac forecasted that 2012-13 weather would be cold in the East and mild in the West, Samenow wrote, but “the opposite occurred."
If we don’t get the early ice the farmers almanacs have forecasted, scratch your first-ice itch sooner by visiting one of these three fisheries, which kick out first-ice ‘eyes year in and year out: North Dakota’s Devil’s Lake and Minnesota’s Upper Red Lake and Lake of the Woods. No matter when and where you hit first-ice, take the appropriate safety precautions.