The Official Golden Snowball Winter Outlook Prediction

It's that time of the season to issue the Golden Snowball 2008 - 2009 winter prediction and if your a snow hater you might want to stop reading right about now.

Snow, Snow and more snow is what the GBS Oracle sees in the future. As always this is based on highly scientific data. Highly scientific data such as the size of the deer, the color of the caterpillars fur, the flip of a coin and more importantly than all the others the color of my mustache and goatee as I start it for another winter season.

1) The deer are pointing toward a cold winter. Normally I talk to couple of buddies who hunt to see how big the deer are during the hunting season which I did but really didn't need to do this year. In recent months I've had at least 4 deer dart in front of the car, one which had to have nicked the car as I slammed on the breaks. Two of the deer were pretty big and the others were pretty young. My brother-in-law's buddy got a 4 pointer which was a little above average size but listening to a guy talk to his friends in a local watering hole I overheard (eavesdropped) him mention to his friends that he shot a 5 pointer that was HUGE! So the deer are making me lean toward a cold and snowy winter.

2) What is it with the caterpillars fur that may predict how the winter will be. Last year I mentioned that I had a casual conversation with a woman who passes by my house everyday as she walks to work. She mention that she thought it would be a mild winter last year, which it was because of the caterpillars coat. Of course being the fool you all know I am I asked her was it a thick coat? Hey, I don't know if caterpillars have thick and thin coats kind of like dogs. Who knows, maybe they shed them in the summer and grow them thick in the winter. Nope, that wasn't what she meant. She said that if a caterpillars color is light then it means that the winter will be mild and if it is dark then it will be a cold winter. A cold winter around the GSB cities means Lake Effect Snow of course at least until Lake Erie freezes over. Anyways I saw the woman walking as I was driving and pulled over to give her a ride like many people in the neighborhood do when they see her. It's about a 2 - 3 mile walk for her. Of course the first question I anxiously asked her was about the caterpillars. What color was the fur this year? Were they light colored or dark. The answer wasn't really what I was looking for but it will have to do as I make this HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC forecast for this winter. She said she hardly even seen any caterpillars this year. ??????? Does that mean they have already went into hiding from the snow? Did they know it would be a cold November and they went wherever they go earlier than normal? By the way, where exactly do caterpillars go anyways? OK, I know I'm rambling on so she did mention that the few she saw this summer were normal as she got out of the car at her work place. I yelled out what does normal mean as she slowly got lost into the crowd. I'll take normal color to mean that it will be an average winter but what does the lack of caterpillars mean? Early hibernation? We'll call that a draw and leave out the data about the caterpillars.

3) The flip of the coin has done well in the past even though I haven't really talked about it much. I'll keep this one short. Heads it's going to be a nasty winter, tails it will be mild. HEADS IT WAS! Enough said!

4) The color of the goatee and mustache. It can't get any more scientific than that can it? Nothing to do with the fact that I'm getting older than dirt and that the chances are if we go by that it's going to be a whiter and whiter winter as the winters go by. I just looked in the mirror and NO, IT DIDN'T BREAK! It did look a little more darker than last season though which can only mean one of two things. The Grecian 5 mustache dye hasn't washed out completely yet or it is going to be an average winter. I'm going with the first choice on this one ;) Let it Snow!

Don't forget that I was way off last year and the General kicked my butt on the winter outlook predictions last season but my predictions about a lot of what I thought would happen actually did. I was thinking Nor Easter's last season and they did indeed happen as I predicted. The only problem was that the air was too warm so most of the storms were either rain, freezing rain or sleet. If the temperatures were just a few degrees colder we all would have had some awesome snow events. Unfortunately most of those storms never panned out.

I think this season it will be cold enough for a few of the Nor Easter's to produce some decent snowfall this season but I like something even more. I'm liking the way the cold air seems to be dropping from Canada so far. I'm liking the flow of the winds coming from the North West which in my opinion will continue and this is based on nothing but intuition. That's going to make for some good lake effect snow this season and a lot of it.

So here it is in a snowflake! Colder than normal at least thru December, January and February. Above average snow snow for all of the Golden Snowball cities including Albany. Will there be a new king of the snow hill come the end of the 2008 - 2009 winter snow season? Remember last year was a close race right to the end and I think this season will be no different.

Here is the prediction for the winner of the 2008 - 2009 Golden Snowball contest:

Rochester - 147 inches
Syracuse - 143 inches
Buffalo - 131 inches
Binghamton - 111 inches
Albany - 68 inches

Possible Long shot of Winning the Contest - Binghamton if the Nor Easters play out and also if the winds keep coming out of the north to reach Bingo!

WInter Outlook Prediction - Colder than Normal and Snowier than Normal Winter! Would you expect anything less from me?

With that all said, remember the source and how clueless I normally am. Have a Safe Winter and as always Snow Means Slow, take it slow this snow season everyone.