Scary story snows social media

COEUR d'ALENE - A weather prediction which went viral on social media sites this week warns the entire country to prepare for a snowpocalypse - but it's a hoax.

The story first appeared on www.empirenews.net which bills itself as a satirical and entertainment website.

Many Americans were terrified by the prediction, writes Snopes.com, a website that debunks urban legends and misinformation on the Internet.

"Per the dire warning subsequently shared across social media sites titled 'Meteorologists Predict Record-Shattering Snowfall Coming Soon,' a winter storm season of epic proportions is headed this way," wrote Snopes.

"The 'Record-Shattering Snowfall Coming Soon' post is just one of several leg-pulls from Empire News, one of a number of fake news sites known for barely detectable satirical posts."

The fake story, which predicts from five to 50 times the normal amount of snow in some areas of the U.S., cites the National Weather Service as its source of information.

The National Weather Service in Spokane couldn't confirm the legitimacy of the story, but said the agency's winter forecasts have not yet been released.

The satirical story also says a strong El Nino is going to cause the increase in snowfall, but typically a strong El Nino will cause a warmer and drier winter in the lower elevations of North Idaho, a meteorologist from the weather service said.

"The mountains still get plenty of snow, but typically the lower elevations get more rain than snow," he said, emphasizing the word "typically," because occasionally the region will get a lot of low-land snow during an El Nino.

Climatologist Cliff Harris said a weak El Nino is developing in the Pacific, but it is too early to tell if that will hold through the coming months.

"If El Nino strengthens, we will likely see less snowfall than usual and milder temperatures overall," he wrote in a column that will appear in Monday's edition of The Press. "But, if it falls apart, all bets are off."

The Old Farmer's Almanac for 2015 predicts; "winter temps above normal and below normal snowfall."

The almanac predicts the snowiest period to be early December, with the coldest periods in late December and mid-to-late February.

The first snow, according to the almanac, is predicted to fall on Oct. 28 through 31.