The Old Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a cooler, drier fall in South Jersey in September and October 2026, with temperatures about a degree Fahrenheit below normal and roughly 1 inch less rainfall than usual.
That forecast is landing now because Tuesday, Sept. 22 is the first day of fall, and people in South Jersey are already looking ahead to what the season may bring after months of summer heat waves and storms that can make fall feel far away. Risha Inaganti, who writes about trending topics across South Jersey and shares an email contact for story tips, is among the voices helping carry that seasonal interest to readers.
The Almanac says its fall forecast uses comparisons between historical weather conditions, solar patterns and current solar activity. It also says it has an 80% accuracy rate for its predictions, a claim that helps explain why its seasonal outlook still draws attention even though it is based on broad patterns rather than a day-by-day forecast.
The regional picture is not the same everywhere. Coastal parts of the country are expected to feel cooler temperatures, while states in the middle of the country may see warmer temperatures. South Jersey falls into the cooler, drier side of the map, which makes the forecast more notable for readers there than for people looking at the country as a whole.
There is also a reason to be cautious. This year’s call for a cool, dry fall follows last year’s fall forecast, which already predicted a warm and dry season. That makes the new outlook less a guarantee than a test of how much weight readers want to give a publication first created in 1792 and known as the oldest weather-forecasting publication in the United States.
For South Jersey, the practical takeaway is simple: September and October are expected to run a little cooler and a little drier than normal. Whether the season comes in close to that script is the question the forecast leaves behind, and it will not be answered until fall is underway.
