Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Winter '17 / '18 - What about snow during La Niña winters?

From the ENSO blog at Climate.gov

"This La Niña footprint is pretty intuitive.

"Given the northward shift of the storm track, relatively cold and wet conditions are favored over the northern Rockies and northern Plains, resulting in the enhancement of snowfall.

"Warmer and drier winters are more likely during La Niña over more southern states, and this is exactly where seasonal snowfall tends to be reduced (4).

"The more vigorous storm track and slight tilt toward colder temperatures over the northern tier of U.S. during La Niña modestly increases the chance of a relatively snowy winter.

"We can break up the snow pattern further and look at the weakest and strongest La Niña events.  Splitting La Niña events into strength reveals some interesting differences worth investigating further.

"In this preliminary analysis below, there is a suggestion that weaker events are snowier over the Northeast and northern and central Plains on average."

More ...

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NOTE:  the data period ends '09 / '10.  Since then ... there have been two El Ninos (one quite strong) ... two La Ninas ... and three cool La Nadas.

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