From Meteorologist Scott Sistek at Seattle station KOMO:
A sight for sore (and dry) eyes: Forecasters officially declare La Niña is here!
As our long, late summer dry stretch now encroaches into the second week of September, there is some good news for those who prefer a rainy day around here: La Niña is officially here!
NOAA forecasters declared a La Niña Advisory Thursday indicating that water temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean have now met the three-month threshold of being at least a half-degree cooler than normal (-0.9 degrees C in the latest report.)
Celebration?
La Niña winters are good news for not only rain fans, but skiers, snowboarders and water managers. Typically as we get into late fall and into the winter, we'll see a frequent pattern where the jet stream carries cooler air from Alaska and B.C. down into our region while providing plenty of moisture. That keeps snow levels down and mountain snowfall plentiful usually leading to an above-average snowpack.
Where I used to live (and still have my store) depends on sking at Mt. Baker for a lot of our business revenue. This year was a total bust as the skiing was poor and then the Wuhan Flu shut down a lot of the park visitation/camping/hiking (the other major driver). Hope things start lurching toward normalcy.
Leave a comment