COLUMBUS (WCMH)-The Old Farmer’s Almanac has just released their long-range weather predictions through the early autumn of 2017, though most of the focus will be on the winter projections.

The almanac was formulated by founder Robert B. Thomas back in 1792, issuing weather predictions based on the relationship between sunspots and the weather that we experience here on Earth. Since then, additional atmospheric factors have been added to the forecasting stew, such as climate cycles and matching past weather patterns.READ MORE: David Mazza’s ‘way too early’ snow forecast for this winter

The general almanac prediction for the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region is calling for a winter that will be “warmer than normal, with above-normal precipitation.” Snowfall is projected to fall below average, except in New York and Illinois. Cold outbreaks would be favored in late December into early January, and then from mid-January to around Groundhog Day. Snowfall would pick up during these times, and again in late February into early March.

All long-range winter forecasts must be taken with a grain of road salt, given the complexities in the interconnected ocean and atmosphere, further influenced by solar activity that is currently diminishing from a sunspot maximum.READ MORE: Real cold front to bring “Mini-Fall Preview”

One of the key players this fall and winter will be the development of a weak to moderate La Nina cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific, which has a history of bringing milder winters with a little less snow in the Ohio Valley, but with a couple of well-defined cold periods in early and mid-winter.

A primary La Nina storm track usually cuts across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, which would be consistent with higher-than-normal snowfalls in parts of the Upper Midwest and interior Northeast, as the almanac predicts. The bigger concern, if the La Nina plays out, is a higher risk for severe weather in the spring of 2017, based on this kind of pattern lingering past March.