Northern States to Have Warmer-Than-Normal Winter, U.S. Says {Bloomberg}
Washington: The Northern U.S. will have a warmer-than-normal winter, and the Pacific Northwest and Ohio River Valley will get below-normal precipitation because of an El Nino weather pattern, the National Weather Service said.
Other effects of the weather pattern will include cool conditions across much of the Southern U.S. and above-normal precipitation in the Southern Plains, the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Florida Peninsula, the Weather Service said on its Web site.
An El Nino, which is preceded by warming Pacific Ocean waters, occurs about every four to five years, causing storms, heat waves, droughts and floods. The latest El Nino is forecast to reach moderate strength, making it weaker than its predecessor of 1997-98, which caused $96 billion in global crop and property losses, the Weather Service said.
``The forecast is based on the development of El Nino and our increased confidence that the event will continue and strengthen,'' said Ed O'Lenic, head of the operations branch at the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center. ``We are more confident than we were last month that it will be a moderately strong event affecting U.S. weather.'' |
