Is Cooler Air Here to Stay?
Today's Snow Depth, Image: NOAA, Click to Enlarge
Look at the snow! This is a picture of the average snow depth across the United States on this Sunday. What’s interesting about this picture is not the fact that five percent of the country is covered in snow. The percentage is not that unusual for the month of October. What is unusual is where the snow is located. When I look back at the snow analysis for the middle of October for that last ten years, most of the early season snow occurred over the Rocky Mountains. This year, the Great Lakes, Appalachians, Upstate New York and New England have snow accumulations. (Source : National Snow Analysis )
This goes hand-in-hand with the cooler than average summer experienced by the Great Lakes and Eastern Seaboard as well. The upper air pattern continues to bring cooler weather to these regions. However, as I posted on Wednesday, this cool summer is no indication of what winter will look like in the same areas. In fact, NOAA is forecasting a warmer than average winter across the northern tier states. On Thursday, NOAA published its El Nino Outlook, with newer and (much prettier) pictures than I created on my blog last Wednesday, showing folks the climate outlook for this winter.
El Nino Climate Outlook, Image: NOAA
El Nino Climate Outlook 2, Image: NOAA
You can see from the first image above that the Pacific Northwest and Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys are expected to be drier than average. And the entire northern half of the United States is expected to be warmer. Sweet relief will come to the Southeastern States, with a cooler than average winter. Higher than average precipitation is expected for California and the Southern United States. (This the forecast for December through February.)
Today, cold weather warnings have been posted all across the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys for states from Ohio and Pennsylvania to Alabama and Mississippi. Here’s the latest TV forecasts from FOX Nashville and Biloxi, Mississippi.
Great football weather! Enjoy the games.
-Dawn Brown