Spring approaches as La Niña fades. Here’s the current outlook for Whatcom County weather
Bellingham and the rest of Western Washington could be looking at a cool, wet spring as a La Niña weather pattern slowly fades into a neutral phase.
Scientists at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center recently issued their forecast for “meteorological spring” — the months of March, April and May. It calls for cooler-than-normal weather with a higher-than-normal chance of rain.
“Those (forecasts) are being driven by La Niña,” National Weather Service meteorologist Kayla Mazurkiewicz told The Herald.
La Niña patterns, which result from cooler Pacific Ocean surface temperatures near the equator, send more storms north into Washington and give the Northwest a colder-than-normal winter with more rain and snow. Its lingering effects are why climatologists are betting on a chilly spring season.
But it’s not a done deal, Mazurkiewicz said in a phone interview.
“Those (long-range forecasts) change pretty frequently. We’ll see how it shakes out,” she said.
