Farmers’ Almanac Is Out With Challenging Thanksgiving Forecast

The National Weather Service does a great job of giving people a heads-up about the potential for severe weather a few days out, current conditions, weather history, and the like. However, when figuring out what weather to expect a couple of weeks from now, if you're not well-versed in meteorology or a weather nerd, and I use that term affectionately, it can be a little harder to find and decipher that information. That said, Farmers' Almanac is out with their forecast, and they think it might be a challenging Thanksgiving for many.

The Thanksgiving forecast for Zone 4, North Central, which includes Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, suggests that we'll see rain and snow for Thanksgiving and then very cold. That's their words, not mine.

The Farmers' Almanac forecast for much of the United States calls for rain, snow, and storms for much of the county over the Thanksgiving weekend. The only areas that seem to avoid the cold are the Pacific Northwest and California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. If the Farmers ' Almanac forecast is correct, those four states aren't expected to see precipitation.

If the Atlantic Coast experiences storms, precipitation, and wind over Thanksgiving, the Midwest and Plains states experience rain and snow followed by cold temperatures. And that forecast continues for Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. Traveling over the holiday weekend could be challenging, particularly in areas with snow and cold temperatures.

That said, the National Weather Service's Updated Official 30-Day Forecast, released on October 31, 2024, suggests above-normal precipitation for the Midwest, including Missouri, and above-normal temperatures for the eastern two-thirds of the country. This at least gives me hope many of us won't see a white Thanksgiving this year.