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FORECAST: COLDER WINTER EXPECTED
Friday, October 21st, 2011 -- 12:21 pm
Posted by Riley Hebert-News Director
Forecasters expect a colder-than-normal winter.
La Niña is to blame for the chilly prediction.
"La Nina has to do with the sea temperatures off the South American coast. They have to be below normal in that area to be considered la Nina," explains meteorologist Dan Jones of the National Weather Service in La Crosse.
Though thousands of miles away, these cool waters can have a big impact on our climate. In a typical La Nina winter, we see below normal temperatures across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and northern Illinois.
There’s also a good chance we’ll see a bit more precipitation than usual, though that’s less predictable, Jones admits.
"We have had some local studies done that kind of suggest that we will have above normal precipitation for the winter," he says.
Long-range forecasting isn’t an exact science and there are several “wild cards” that are nearly impossible to predict. Madden Julian Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation are just to of the phenomena that could possibly trump the la Nina pattern.
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