To foretell is to say what will happen later, especially as if you have special or magical knowledge — a prophet who foretells a war, an old story in which someone foretells a king's death. It is an old, bookish, story-like word. For weather and ordinary plans, people say forecast or predict. Foretell still belongs to myths, holy books, and serious writing about fate. Though actually, newspapers sometimes use it with no magic at all: few could have foretold this result. Even then it sounds heavier than predict. The past form is foretold, not foretelled.