Winter Weather Outlook

It's hard to think about winter when the temperatures outside have been in the 80s for much of the week. But if you're already dreaming of making snowballs and building snowmen, you might want a back-up plan.



While much of the nation is still in summer mode, the folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center have been busy running models forecasting winter weather. What are they saying?

• Long-range weather forecasts are predicting a warmer than average winter with less precipitation for much of the United States except the Pacific Northwest.
  


• NOAA forecasters believe the emergence of a La Nina condition -- unusually cold ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean -- will be the main factor behind the anticipated warmth for much of North America.

If you remember, the winter of 2006-07 was extremely mild for southwest Virginia, with very little snowfall and record warmth in January. Roanoke only saw 3.4" of snowfall last winter, which fell in February. A typical winter would bring an average of 23 inches of snow to the Roanoke Valley.

I don't know about you, but I'd love to see us have a big winter with lots of snow. We need all the help we can get to make up for an extremely dry summer and fall.

--Brent