Another warm winter predicted for United States

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Much of the United States should expect another warm winter, but not quite as toasty as the past two years, forecasters said on Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast a warmer winter from California through the Midwest to Maine. A colder than normal winter is predicted for southern Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Tier states.

Normal temperatures are forecast for a thin swath of states from Indiana to Idaho.

The big driver in the forecast is a La Nina weather event that is likely to develop next month. La Nina, the flip side of El Nino, is the periodic cooling of the central Pacific Ocean that affects weather patterns.

There was a La Nina for the early part of last winter. The 2015-2016 winter was record warm, about 4.55 degrees hotter than normal.

Mike Halpert, deputy director of administration’s Climate Prediction Center, said it would be surprising if this winter in the U.S. is as warm.

Halpert said the southern U.S. is likely to be drier than normal, while the north from eastern Washington through the Great Lakes to update New York is likely to be wetter.

The administration’s winter outlook doesn’t forecast snow or specific storms, but La Ninas tend to favour more storms coming from the west and north than from the Gulf of Mexico or the East Coast, Halpert said.

The private weather firm AccuWeather forecasts a quite colder, wilder winter. It predicts a chilly winter with snow and ice from the Northeast to the Great Lakes with “Arctic cold blasts” in the Great Plains. It also predicts a milder and drier winter than last year for the Southern Plains, Southwest and California.