Farmer’s Almanac Releases Its Massachusetts Halloween Forecast

Sure, it may seem a bit early to be thinking about the Halloween weather forecast, but now that we're just a few weeks away, the experts at the Farmer's Almanac are getting a sense of what they think the weather will be like on that spooky holiday.

The first day of autumn was on Sept. 22. As the Farmer's Almanac states, "In mid-September each year, we greet the fall season with the arrival of the fall equinox (otherwise known as the autumnal equinox). This is the moment when the Sun crosses the Equator, and those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere will begin to see more darkness than daylight." Then, the first day of winter will arrive on Dec. 21. That's also when the days will start getting longer again.

So, what kind of weather should we expect on Halloween night? It's close enough that we have some actual predictions on just how cool this Halloween will be from the Farmer's Almanac.

So, how accurate are the Farmer's Almanac's predictions? According to the publication, the Old Farmer's Almanac makes its famous predictions by "comparing solar patterns and historical weather conditions with current solar activity." they also say that their "results are often very close to our traditional claim of 80 percent."

For Halloween, the Almanac predicts "fair skies, then showers" for the Northeast and New England; "fair, then showers," for the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and Midwest; "fair skies" for the Southeast; "wet Rockies, Plains, then turning fair"; for the North Central part of the country; "wet, then clearing skies" for South Central; "unsettled" with "showers" for the Northwest; and "unsettled, showery" for the Southwest.

That means Massachusetts is looking at "fair skies" and "then showers" for Halloween with some showers. Hey, it's better than snow, right?

In general, the Old Farmer's Almanac says to expect a warmer-than-average fall season for most of the country, including Halloween, with the western half of the U.S. getting warmer weather. It also predicts that the regions with cooler than normal weather this fall will be the Northeast, the Appalachians, the Lower Lakes, Ohio Valley, Upper Midwest, Desert Southwest and Hawaii. Meanwhile, the areas that are expected to be warmer than normal weather include the Atlantic Corridor, Southeast, Florida, Deep South, Heartland, Texas-Oklahoma, High Plains, Intermountain, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest and Alaska.