Is The Bangor Area On Track For A Nice, Boring, Average Winter?

There are all sorts of ways to predict winter weather in Maine

When I was a kid, my grandparents were full of all those old-school weather sayings. For instance, my grandmother, sitting in her chair at camp, would often look across the lake on foggy mornings and say, "fog on the hill, water for the mill.... fog in the hollow, fair day to follow." And tons of other things just like that.

I remember my grandfather also always telling me that during August if you monitor the clouds, it will tell you what kind of winter is in store. He said that over the course of the month, watch the undersides of the clouds. If they stayed mostly white through the month, it'd be a mild winter, snow-wise. If they were dark, then grab the shovel.

We've also had a long history of actually believing the Farmer's Almanacs.

We love to reference the Old and New Farmer's Almanacs in Maine as well. Although, historically speaking, the Old Almanac is accurate only about 50% of the time, and the New Almanac is only right an average of 75% of the time. So more often than not, it's time to look at what the actual weather scientists say about snowfall for the year.

If you scope this map from the National Weather Service in Gray, you'll find that the Bangor area is in store for a nice, average, boring winter. It doesn't indicate anything about temps, just about snowfall. Near as I can tell the average snowfall for a season around Bangor is about 70 inches. This year, we are in the 75-100 inch zone.

Heck no! Lord knows, meteorology is not remotely an exact science, but more of an extremely educated guess. The other thing my grandfather always taught me about the weather... There's only one absolutely sure-fire way to be able to accurately tell what the weather is going to be... Stick your head out the window. It never lies.