Winter Forecasts: How Much Snow For YOU?

Frequently asked questions this week from my blog readers are as follows:

- What is the AccuWeather Winter Forecast for 2007-2008?
- How much snow will I get this winter?

Here's the status of our official forecast (as I've been told - I don't control this, so the dates could change). It has been produced and will be made available to our commercial clients tomorrow. It will appear on the weather enthusiast website AccuWeather.com Professional this Friday October 17, and will be released to the public on Monday, October 22.

Unofficial forecasts from AccuWeather.com have been released by bloggers Henry Margusity (PREMIUM | PRO) (U.S., Oct. 1st) and Brett Anderson (PREMIUM | PRO (Canada, Oct. 3rd).

But what does this mean to you snow lovers? Well, when we put out our forecast, we'll show snowfall in "percent of normal". Here's how to make sense of this, for example "130% of normal." First, you need to know what's normal for you. This can be accomplished by visiting this map or this list of major cities (unfortunately, snowfall records aren't kept for many stations so you might have to guess). The rest is math -- if your normal snowfall is 10 inches, then take 130% of normal (1.30) times 10 inches = 13 inches.

The NOAA 2007-2008 winter forecast was released last week but without snowfall amounts, it's no fun, and I still don't know what it means (how is a 33% chance of above-normal temperatures not a 77% chance of below-normal temperatures?)

And remember... when storms approach you this winter, AccuWeather's AccuPOP is the best way to monitor your local chances for snow, ice and rain (see my previous tutorial on AccuPOP). When the storm gets within 24 hours of your location, monitor your local AccuPOP forecast. Or, if you are a subscriber to our Premium or Pro services, you will have AccuPOP 96 hours (4 days) in advance. You can also get detailed winter forecast maps from models on our Pro site like this, up to 15 days in advance, on Pro.