La Niña, the climate pattern that likes to mess with the severity of our winters, is back. This iteration of La Niña is a little weaker than expected and arrived a little later than usual. Sounds great on paper, until you find out why it got here a little later and in a weakened state. The answer isn’t so rosy, to say the least.
La Niña is Mirror Universe El Niño. Where El Niño is a climate pattern that emerges when parts of the Pacific Ocean experience above-average sea surface temperatures, La Niña is when that same thing happens but the sea surface temperatures are below average. This causes all sorts of odd weather patterns and trends. The current weather all up and down the state of California is a good example.
La Niña helped set the conditions for the wildfires currently ravaging Los Angeles by causing severe dryness in Southern California, but it also caused more rainfall than usual in Northern California. Similarly, cities all across the Midwest are getting some of the rainiest, wettest winters they’ve had in years.
The southern and central United States are usually quite dry and warm during La Niña at this time of year, but this year’s version has brought freezing air and winter storms that have coated cities like Dallas and Atlanta in snow.
La Niña is Here To Make The US Wetter, Dryer, and Snowier
Since La Niña started a little later than usual, and is a little weaker than usual, meteorologists are finding it a little difficult to predict exactly what will happen in the months to come as La Niña is expected to persist until April.
The southern and eastern US will probably experience some warmer temperatures as La Niña rolls on, with states in the Northwest and Midwest experiencing more rain and cold than usual. Some parts of the country should expect snow well into the spring.
No discussion of global weather patterns is complete nowadays without an acknowledgment of climate change’s influence. La Niña is no exception. If you’re looking for a reason as to why La Niña started later than usual, it’s because global ocean temperatures were exceptionally high, delaying the cooling of the equatorial Pacific.
La Niña was predicted to arrive in the late summer or early fall, but thanks to climate change, a once predictable climate pattern just got a little bit more erratic.
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