How will La Niña affect the rest of winter in the US?

The first weekend of February will be a good example of the kind of weather that may be most common for the rest of this winter.

Transcript

00:00It's official we will remain in a La Nina pattern for the rest of the winter season.

00:05La Nina happens when the water near the Pacific equator is cooler than normal.

00:10Now this pattern has a huge influence on the weather patterns especially

00:16in the winter weather patterns across North America.

00:19Here's what we should expect for the remainder of winter.

00:23So here's the overall setup.

00:24We have that cooler water there across the equator

00:28and for the Pacific that really has a big influence and change

00:32on the jet stream here in the northern hemisphere.

00:34And how does that impact here for the northwest especially?

00:38Well that's what we're going to break down here as far as what to expect for the rest of the winter.

00:42So you normally see cooler than historical average temperatures there across the northwest.

00:47Now across the southern plains into the southeast we normally see warmer than historical averages

00:53and that's exactly what we're going to have here as we head into the weekend.

00:56Some record-breaking temperatures here possible across the south.

00:59So yes across the northwest we see more moisture across the northwest coast which has been tracking

01:05and yes we are going to see some colder air across the northern Rockies with snow chances

01:09working its way into the forecast as well.

01:11And yes across the southern plains much warmer

01:14than historical averages here with a La Nina pattern and look at this

01:18as we head throughout the weekend that's exactly what's going to happen.

01:22A very mild stretch of weather with temperatures about 10 to 20 degrees above historical averages.

01:28So yes definitely seeing that influence from La Nina.

01:31And then for the winter impacts across the rest of the country you normally see drier conditions

01:36here across the southern plains wetter than normal conditions across the northwest

01:40which is exactly what's going to happen this weekend.