Keep your boots, long johns and snow shovels handy this winter if you live in the East, the Farmers’ Almanac’s forecast suggests. Residents of the West, however, can look forward to a milder winter this time around.

“Mother Nature is going to be sort of two-faced,” almanac editor Peter Geiger said.

The almanac’s 2008 edition, which goes on sale Tuesday, foresees plenty of snow across the Northeast, temperatures averaging as much as 3 degrees below normal along most of the Atlantic Coast, and four major frosts as far south as Florida. The Great Lakes region will also take a pounding.

The outlook is tamer for the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, the desert Southwest and the Pacific Coast, but Geiger said snow in Colorado will be more than adequate for skiing