Are we getting a ”La Niňa” winter?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just released its weather forecast for the upcoming winter.

As you can imagine, my focus zeroed in on what might be going on in our region. This year, NOAA is promising a 50 to 55% chance of having a La Niña Winter.

What does this actually means? On a typical La Niña year, the jet stream tends to have a more northern positioning, which can mean consistent cold storms in places like British Columbia, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, and central/northern Colorado.

This said, the 2020/2021 forecast doesn’t appear that favorable to us, in Park City, Utah or the whole of Colorado, for that matter.

Precipitation are expected to be average all winter while temperature are predicted to be significantly warmer (good old global warming, remember?). This doesn’t bode too well for us skiers and for our local resorts that may not be able to make snow, but where NOAA failed to deliver was in the Covid-19 department, and couldn’t tell if it would go up, down or away…

As always, I’ll make a note to check theses predictions at the end of winter and report how close to reality they ended up being.