Almanac Says Illinois Winter Mild Except for Two Disastrous Weeks

Since I despise snow, I was a big fan of what Farmer's Almanac just said about winter in Illinois when I learned that overall it predicted a relatively mild season. That was until I saw what it had predicted for a couple of weeks in Illinois which look like they could be a disaster waiting to happen.

First, let's be specific about what Farmer's Almanac we're talking about. There's the traditional "old" Farmer's Almanac and then there's the fancy "new" Farmer's Almanac. The newly updated forecast I'm referring to is from the "old" Farmer's Almanac.

Here's what it has to say about winter in Illinois for the rest of this year into 2025:

Overall, winter is expected to be mild with slightly below average precipitation and slightly warmer temperatures. I was happy about that until I saw the week by week breakdown. There's one specific week you might want to keep an eye open for and it's not that far away.

The Old Farmer's Almanac says watch out for two weeks in January beginning on January 15. The week of January 15 is expected to include plenty of snow showers including lake effect heavy snow and then the week of January 22 is described as "snowy, very cold".

This chart shared by the Old Farmer's Almanac shows the terror might not be done in January as February is looking a bit iffy now also with above average snow and below average temperatures. The red is temperature and the blue is snow. That's a bad combination.

Let's focus on the big picture of "mild" for Illinois winter and act like those last two weeks in January don't exist, OK?