The December through February winter climate outlook was released by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center today. It shows a pattern that we typically see in La Nina winters, with warmer and drier than normal conditions expected across large parts of the Southeast. This is likely to lead to an expansion of drought over the winter, although impacts may be relatively small since most plants are dormant and not using a lot of water and temperatures are low, limiting evaporation. Note that this does not mean we won’t see any cold weather, and in fact, we expect to see outbreaks of cold air over the course of winter as we usually do, and likely even some snow, especially in northern areas of the region. Since this forecast is based on probabilities, we could also be in the 1 or 2-in-10 or so years when the forecast does not follow what we expect from climatology.
