National Weather Service vs Farmers' Almanac

"We anticipate with a fair amount of confidence that winter -- December through February -- in Wisconsin will have above-normal temperatures," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center in Maryland.

Precipitation, however, is up for grabs, according to Halpert, with equal possibilities for rain and snowfall being below, near or above normal. That was the center's prediction last year as well.

But Peter Geiger, editor and publisher of the Maine-based Farmers' Almanac, says the forecast is clear.

"It will be frigid, wet, wild and snowy," he said. "I don't know if there will be as much snow, but there will be a lot of snowstorms. It looks like a long winter in the Midwest."