By David Tirrell-Wysocki, Associated Press in the USA Today

DUBLIN, N.H.  The Old Farmer’s Almanac is going further out on a limb than usual this year, not only forecasting a cooler winter, but looking ahead decades to suggest we are in for global cooling, not warming. Based on the same time-honored, complex calculations it uses to predict weather, the Almanac hits the newsstands on Tuesday saying a study of solar activity and corresponding records on ocean temperatures and climate point to a cooler, not warmer, climate, for perhaps the next half century.

“We at the Almanac are among those who believe that sunspot cycles and their effects on oceans correlate with climate changes,” writes meteorologist and climatologist Joseph D’Aleo. “Studying these and other factors suggests that a cold, not warm, climate may be our future.” It remains to be seen, said Editor-in-Chief Jud Hale, whether the human impact on global temperatures will cancel out or override any cooling trend.

“We say that if human beings were not contributing to global warming, it would become real cold in the next 50 years,” Hale said.

For the near future, the Almanac predicts most of the country will be colder than normal in the coming winter, with heavy snow from the Ozarks into southern New England. Snow also is forecast for northern Texas, with a warmer than usual winter in the northern Plains. Almanac believers will prepare for a hot summer in much of the nation’s midsection, continuing drought conditions there and wild fire conditions in parts of California, with a cooler-than-normal season elsewhere. They’ll also keep the car packed for the 2009 hurricane season, as the Alamanac predicts an active one, especially in Florida.

But Editor Janice Stillman said it’s the winter foreasts that attract the most attention, especially this year, with much higher heating prices.So, in line with the weather and economy forecasts, the Almanac includes information on using wood for heat: the best wood, how to build a fire in a fireplace, whether to use a wood stove and how to stay warm - all winter - with a single log. Here’s the secret, popularized in 1777: Throw a log out an upstairs window, dash down the stairs and outside, retrieve the log, dash upstairs, throw the log out the window and so on. “Do that until you work up a sweat and you’ll be warm all winter,” said Stillman.

Last year, the Almanac correctly predicted “above-normal” snowfall in the Northeast - an understatement - and below-normal snowfall in the mid-Atlantic states. New Hampshire, home of the Almanac, saw the most snow in 134 years and missed an all-time record by 2.6 inches.

Established in 1792, the Old Farmer’s Almanac is North America’s oldest continuously published periodical. The little yellow magazine still comes with the hole in the corner so it can hang in outhouses.  Boasting 18.5 million readers, this year’s edition contains traditional tips on gardening and astronomical information and tide charts so accurate the government considered banning them during World War II, fearing they would help German spies. See more here.

Icecap Note: This was a real coup thanks to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, in addition to reaching their regular readers, the story was picked up by the AP and carried in well over 250 newspapers including the USA Today and today the Washington Post. That is one way to break through the Society of Environmental Journalists roadblocks where their handbook advises their members to avoid covering stories that challenge man-made global warming.

Buy the OLD Farmers Almanac (publisher Yankee Magazine) or see their web site with the timeline and story and forecasts.  By the way I was privileged to be asked to author this piece and the Almanac allowed me to be more technical than most magazines allow. Unfortunately the long lead time for publication prevented me from adding the latest charts showing the continued rapid cooling in 2008 and overall global cooling since 2002 like this one.