What this year’s El Nino means for your region

NOAA on Thursday issued a winter forecast, heavily influenced by one of the strongest El Ninos on record.

El Niño’s impact is expected to be felt across the US, beginning in January.

As for El Nino, the phenomenon created by a warming of the surface water of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean, it’s still being ballyhooed by climatologists as a major event – one of the strongest in years.

NOAA’s Mike Halpert said the atmosphere has started responding to El Nino last spring bringing a few of the warmest conditions since 1997-1998. Absolutely not. We’ll still see bouts of cold weather and the occasional snow event, potentially even snow storms. El Nino changes weather worldwide, mostly affecting the United States in winter. NOAA expects above-average precipitation to occur in southeastern Alaska.

NOAA’s prognostications are also indicating above-average temperatures for much of the west and the “northern half of the contiguous United States”.

Meteorologists at the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center once again peered into their crystal ball to provide thier annual winter outlook. “However, drought is likely to persist in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, with drought development likely in Hawaii, parts of the northern Plains and in the northern Great Lakes region”, according to the outlook. However, based on the winter outlook, NOAA says that the drought will improve or could end altogether in our area over the winter months.

Forecasters predict warmer-than-usual temperatures for Cincinnati this winter.

America’s central states are usually less affected, and this year there is an equal chance of their temperature and rainfall going in either direction, the NWS said.