While there may not be any snow on the ground right now, winter is coming. MTN News talked spoke with a meteorologist at the National Weather Service (NWS), to get an idea of what the winter will look like this year.
“Things that we tend to look at coming up on the winter season are definitely the global scale patterns that we are seeing,” said Amanda Wilson, an NWS meteorologist. “People have probably heard the term El Nino and La Nina. Those kind of affect [how] cold and how wet we are throughout the winter season.”
Meteorologists are expecting more precipitation this winter, compared to last year’s below-average snow amounts.
“Last year, we definitely had more of a warm, later start to the winter with below-average snowfall. This year, we're actually looking at more of a moderate chance for a La Nina for this winter, so [that] has the opposite effect,” said Wilson.
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While it is hard to say right now when the snow is officially going to stick around for the season, there are several resources available to the public to stay informed on what kind of weather is coming our way throughout the season.
“The Climate Prediction Center (link) does those three-month outlooks and seasonal outlooks, and so they have been also hinting at chances for a colder and wetter winter over here,” Wilson said.
With chances for greater precipitation amounts this season, other issues Montana faces could be made better as well, such as drought conditions.
Wilson added, “Hopefully this year, we’re kind of expecting definitely more of an above average amount of precipitation, so hopefully that can help our drought conditions, especially over in the northern Rockies.”
People are urged to stay up to date on current weather conditions daily and prepare ahead of time for snow and poor road conditions.
