National Weather Service Issues 2006 Winter Forecast
Today, the National Weather Service issued a press release with their first look at what winter is shaping up to be in the United States for 2006. For metro Atlanta and North Georgia, we’re likely to see near normal temperatures, and equal chances of above, below, or normal precipitation.
Much of the country will likely see above normal temperatures, especially in the traditionally wintry states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Near normal temperatures are expected for most of the Southeast, and a band stretching from Texas to North Carolina has equal chances of above or below normal temps. Apparently, the cold spot will be in Hawaii this year.
Wetter than normal weather is predicted for the southeast Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, stretching back through the desert southwest. Dry areas include much of Kentucky and Tennessee, and the Pacific Northwest.
The weather service is basing its forecast on the current El Nino pattern for the most part, and it is essentially the long range 3 month outlook produced back in September, and updated each month. (If you’re interested, the super long range outlook for Spring is for warmer than normal temperatures across much of the country).
In the shorter range, we are likely to get a bit of much needed precipitation this week. I’ve recorded about 3/4 of an inch of rain since September 13th, which was the last major rainfall date. That’s almost a month. Two cold fronts will pass through this week, on Wednesday, and again on Thursday, and the double blast will provide a chance for frost on Saturday morning. Then we’ll warm up a bit before another cold front hits late on the week of the 15th, dropping temperatures again.
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