Just signed up so I hope you don't mind my posting here.

The geese have started flying South. The last 2 days in a row, flocks have landed on my pond. Last year I didn't see any until late Sept. Maybe they know something. Or, it could just be that the drought has messed up the available feed.

You can also check out the Farmer's Almanac.

Welcome OddDuck and greetings from Northern Ontario. Post as much as you see fit, that is why the forum is here. As for the geese many seemed to fly north late this year. Haven't seen any going south yet buy there seem to be a lot of "local" flocks that hang around and go back and forth. The meteorologists could not predict last winter or this summer so I expect this trend to continue. When the jet stream does not follow the predicted pattern it makes medium and long term weather prediction very difficult. So it is a crap shoot.

While there are signs that i watch for in the critters and even plants, first alot has not occured yet and second, this drought has effect how things are reacting and I don't trust that the plants are not reacting.. I'm on a major flight path for the geese/ducks and so far, nothing coming though my way yet.

Does anyone have a Farmers Allmenac to check the weather against it? They used to be fairly well spot on for the areas they covered.

The short answer is for all of our science, satellites and computer models, the weather is too complex to forecast more than a few days out with any assurance.
The Farmers Almanac blew it completely for my area last year.

DANG IT
I didn't want to hear that there are no easy answersNow my day is ruined hehehe

I did read a long term forcaste for Ontario a while back. It said something along the lines that the dry condtions would continue for summers with an extended growing season, kinda useless if its dry, and that we could expect a lot more freezing rain and ice during the winter. This was supposed to be a trend in general and not a one time wonder.

Sure hope that weather guy is one of the sucky ones that can't tie his own shoes. And yes, I agree you cannot really predict long term. Ten minutes from now is tough enough.