As La Niña chances decline, here’s what forecasters say about Whatcom County’s winter weather
Chances looking good for a weak La Niña pattern to influence Western Washington;s winter weather, according to the new three-month forecast from the National Weather Service.
In its forecast for “meteorological winter,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that La Niña will make December, January and February colder and wetter than normal in several parts of the U.S., including Western Washington.
“This winter, NOAA predicts wetter-than-average conditions for the entire northern tier of the continental U.S., particularly in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes region, along with northern and western Alaska,” NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said in a statement issued Thursday.
La Niña is a cooling of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures west of equatorial South America, and that trend is developing gradually, the Climate Prediction Center said in an Oct. 10 statement.
There’s a 60% chance of La Niña developing by November and lasting through March, the center said.
Meteorologist Dana Felton at the National Weather Service in Seattle told The Bellingham Herald that a weak La Niña gives the Seattle area a 50-50 chance of snow in the lowlands this winter.
“It’s just a trend — it’s not a given. Even a weak La Niña favors wetter and slightly cooler conditions. Here in Seattle, we’ve had above-normal snow in about half” of a dozen weak La Niña patterns since 1950, Felton said in a phone interview.
Felton said that snowfall data was kept at Bellingham International Airport only for the years 1949 to 1996. In that time, Bellingham averaged a foot of snow every winter.
“The La Niña favors good snowpack in the mountains. The ski areas are certainly not upset about that,” he said.
This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 10:54 AM.
