Is "Kinder, Gentler" Winter On Tap?

Folks hammered by record snowfall in the mid-Atlantic and freakishly cold temperatures in the South can warm up to the latest forecast by the Farmers' Almanac.

The 194-year-old publication is predicting a "kinder and gentler'' winter season for much of the nation.

The Maine-based almanac, which claims it correctly forecast the Middle Atlantic's mega snowstorms, says in its 2011 edition that goes on sale Monday that it'll be plenty cold but nothing like last winter, when stunned iguanas fell from trees in Florida and 49 states saw snowfall.

The forecast is at odds with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, which projects warmer-than-normal winter for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, and colder-than-normal weather in the Northwest.

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