We’ve spent most of August sleeping with the windows open on cool nights and enjoying weather that hasn’t been as hot and humid as the same month in recent years.

Yes, it’s also been a lot wetter than the past.  According to the National Weather Service, Floyd, Virginia, has had more rainfall this year than Seattle, Washington.

Now the Farmers Almanac says we’re headed for a colder than normal winter with lots of snow.  Those who accept the prognostications of the Almanac as gospel fear a long, cold and hard winter.

Last year, the Almanac predicted colder than normal temperatures in the East and warmer than normal in the West.  But is was exactly the opposite — something the braggarts at the Almanac overlooked this year when they bragged about an “80 percent accuracy rate” in their forecasts.

And while the Almanac did say 2013 could be a little wetter than normal it did not forecast the drenching rains that left the area flooded and waterlogged.  It also claimed the last half of August would be dry.

Floyd County’s school system appears to be preparing for a worse than normal winter.  Students returned to class on August 13 — far earlier than previous years and ahead of most other school systems in the area.

So what kind of weather is heading our way for the coming fall and winter?  Hard to say. Given the fact that the “meteorologists” who prognosticate on TV night after night and get the forecasts for the next day wrong more often than not, it’s hard ot say who — if anyone — can tell us what will happen with weather over the next few months.

Weather, by nature, is unpredictable and anyone who claims they can predict it with any accuracy is dreaming or just trying to promote sales of tomes like the Farmers Almanac.