Friday, December 4, 2015

El Nino may affect Christmas

Putting all the previous strong El Niño Decembers together, you'll note the widespread warmth over most of the eastern two-thirds of the nation, from the High Plains of Montana to New England. Not a good sign for snow either falling or remaining on the ground.
However, this is an average of those five Decembers. Not all of those were warm. December 1972 (animation of the Dec. 1-25 temperature departures in each of those seasons) was quite cold over the Plains, Upper Midwest and northern Rockies.
However, note the average precipitation over those five Decembers was wetter than average not just over where you would expect it in a strong El Niño – namely, the nation's southern tier – but also in a ribbon extending northeast into the Mississippi Valley and western Great Lakes.
So, at least historically speaking, there's a better chance of December precipitation that, if the air mass happens to be cold enough at that time, could fall as snow.
http://www.weather.com/storms/winter/news/el-nino-white-christmas-impact

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