Whither the weather?

"There is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather," 19th-century writer John Ruskin once said. The following regions can expect the following kinds of good weather this winter, according to National Weather Service predictions:

* Idaho and the Montana Rockies have a 65 percent chance of colder-than-usual weather; the western Dakotas to Idaho down through northern and central California have a 60 percent chance; and Minnesota, the northern Great Plains and Rockies, the Great Basin, interior Northwest and part of southern California have a 55 percent chance.

* John Keats, who desired "books, fruit, French wine and fine weather," might have wanted to take his possesions this winter to southern Florida, which stands a 70 percent chance of a milder-than-normal winter. The rest of Florida to the eastern Carolinas have a 65 percent chance of milder-than-usual temperatures; north and west to the Mississippi Delta and Chesapeake Bay have a 60 percent chance; and from Texas to New Jersey there is a 55 percent chance.

* New England weather, which Mark Twain said is "always getting up new designs and trying them on people to see how they will go," is not likely to disappoint. Though the official map slates New England and the Midwest for a near-normal winter, both regions have the potential for sharp variations.

* The Bible's "sound of abundance of rain" may be heard in Utah and the Great Lakes region, which have a 60 percent chance of extra precipitation. The Great Basin and the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio valleys are rated at 55 percent. The area where Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico come together has a 55 percent chance of less rain.