Old Man Winter May be in Shorts this Year
Hello again! As promised, I am going to give you the scoop on what government forecasters are predicting for WINTER!
You’ve heard me mention how much I love sweaters, but I also love boots and gloves and mittens too! Not to mention a good old-fashioned snow storm! Growing up in Canada, snowstorms are a pretty common occurrence — there were many Halloweens, I remember, when I had to wear my snow suit under my scary costume!!!)
According to NOAA, “warmer than average” is the headline for this winter across much of the U.S. Click over to read the article!
So warmer than average, but not as warm as it was last year (Last December was the fourth warmest December on record! I remember when I moved apartments in January here in New York, some of my husband’s firefighter buddies were wearing wearing shorts as they were lugging furniture and boxes! (Not a complaint here by the way!)
It also looks like a record breaking drought in the southeast is not going to go away anytime soon, and the southwest is going to remain parched too. Meanwhile, the Great Lakes and the Tennessee Valley are forecast to see more rain than average this season.The NOAA forecasters say one of the factors contributing to our potentially above average season is a phenomenon called La Niña which could persist through the winter.
You’ve heard of El Niño (Remember Chris Farley’s hilarious skit on Saturday Night Live on El Nino a few years back??)
Well, La Niña is kind of the opposite to her brother El Nino. She brings cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific which in turn changes some of the weather patterns across the globe including the U.S. So, that’s one of the things forecasters look at when they do all of their seasonal predictions. I guess this will probably fuel more speculation on the big bad Global Warming theories out there. (And yes, I have many opinions on this topic which I may bring up from time to time, but for now my standby response it this:
WE CAN’T EVEN GET A 5 DAY FORECAST RIGHT LET ALONE PREDICT WHAT THE WEATHER WILL BE A FEW DECADES AHEAD!!! I will end there! 
Hi Janice. I grew up in the South of England and I also had to wear snow clothes under halloween costumes…..my dad is a retired firefighter for the London Fire Brigade, so we have a couple of things in common….so happy to hear you got married….does your hubby have any nice single friends??? Love the blog
Yay Wendy! Thanks for writing. We love our Firemen!
I wish I had more information about global warming to be able to make a confident decision on which side I am on. But because my time is limited and I spend too much time on the blogs, I have to rely on people I trust in the media to give me their opinions and I end up believing those. Because I believe that the scientist who are against the theory of global warming are more credible than the scientist who are for it, I’m going to trust them and go with the theory that global warming doesn’t exist (at least to the extent that Al Gore makes his point).
thanks for the explanation of El Nino and La Nina… now I’ll know what you guys are talking about when I hear it in the future.
HI Janice I remember watching you give the morning news when you worked at what used to be called the NEW-RO, which is now as you know called A-channel Ottawa, happy to see you get hitched and enjoying the big city of New York. Always funny to see you on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld and his zanny bunch.
I’m in the outer Ottawa Valley.
Wow P!
You remember me from way back then! I miss home! Will be back at Christmas though! Gotta love the powerful loonie these days eh? ha!
Janice
I heard on Fox by Steve Ducey we can expect a bad winter. The Farmer’s Almanac says mild. Who do we believe???? I lost my summer to foot surgery so I want another warm Nov./Dec. I live in New England so I’ve taken my share of bad winters (I vividly remember the Blizzard of 78 as a kid) not to mention spending a Thanksgiving in Anchorage as a reporter on assignment. So can I hope for my extended warm weather?
BTW, you rock on Red Eye.
Ive heard also we can expect a mild winter but in my area (ohio valley) we are expecting some ice storms, and above average precip. Who nows lol..but I will have plenty of AAA, AA, C and D batteries, and propane.
Passing through and wanted to say hello