by Northern News Now meteorologist Dave Anderson
We just shook off the snowiest winter in our region’s recorded history, but it’s already time to cast an eye towards the next winter. NOAA figures it’s going to be an El Nino winter. The abnormal warming of the Pacific that is part of El Nino is more in the realm of oceanography than meteorology, but the bottom line is the effect will affect the positions of both the polar and subtropical jet streams.
This coming winter, it is guesstimated that the subtropical jet will make the southern U.S. warm and rainy. The polar jet will make the northern U.S. cold and dry.
The summer will likely be a different story. For June, temperatures may rise up and make us forget that winter lasted six months this year. Long range forecasters figure it will be one degree warmer than normal and we’ll get two more inches of rain than normal.
We may get more storms than normal, too. It seems to be a fairly simple forecast this month. June 1st to 5th should be showery and mild. The 6th to 18th should be warm with scattered storms. The rest of the month should be warm and stormy.
Good luck to folks with storm-shy pets! I’ve got a nervous little four pound chihuahua that will probably spend the month cowering behind the toilet. She may be onto something, though. When houses are hit with tornadoes, the plumbing is often the only thing left standing!
