Perspective
The Old Farmer’s Almanac and the Fall Equinox
Every September, a new Old Farmer's Almanac lands on shelves right as the equinox turns the season. Here's the 234-year habit behind that timing.
On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, the sun crosses the equator and day and night sit close to equal before the season tips toward winter. Around that same week, one of the oldest habits in American publishing repeats itself. A new edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac lands on shelves, just as it has every September since 1792.
A Farmer, a Formula, and a Locked Box
Robert B. Thomas launched the Almanac in 1792, during George Washington’s first term as president. He built his forecasts on a secret weather formula that’s still kept locked away at the Almanac’s offices in New Hampshire. The publisher has long claimed the method holds up around 80 percent of the time, though nobody outside the company has ever fully seen it. Circulation tripled within the Almanac’s second year, and by the 1830s it had outlasted every rival almanac on the market. That’s when Thomas added “Old” to the name, to make the point stick.
Why September, Every Year
Farmers didn’t wait until January to plan for the coming year. They needed to know what winter looked like before the first frost hit. Publishing in September, right as the season turned, put the new edition in readers’ hands exactly when they were finishing one harvest and planning the next. That habit never changed. The 2027 edition arrived on shelves September 1, 2026, the same week the equinox falls this year.
Where the Habit Lands With Us
We didn’t inherit the Almanac’s forecasting method, and we’re not claiming any accuracy rate for our own system. What we kept is the instinct behind it: treating a turn in the sky as a reason to check in, rather than letting the date pass unnoticed. That’s closer to what our own calendar tries to do with the moon each month, just on a shorter cycle than a 234-year-old book.