COLUMBUS – Monday was a beautiful fall day — plenty of sunshine, temps in the 70s. But winter’s bearing down on us. And you know what? It might not be that bad.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The National Weather Service and AccuWeather are both projecting a warmer-than-average winter — December through February — with below-average snowfall. But another outfit said it may get dicier later this winter.
You can thank a strong El Nino brewing in the Pacific Ocean that will peak later in the fall and early winter for what appears to be a milder-than-average season, said Mike Kurz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio.
That means the southern jet stream should be more dominant than the northern jet stream. That means Arctic air masses will be less frequent, said Paul Pastelok, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather in State College, Pa.
“Overall, I don’t think it’s going to be as severe in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region compared to other winters,” Pastelok said.
That would be a relief to central Ohioans worn out by the past two winters. Last winter’s average temperature from December through February in Columbus was 27.1 degrees, compared with the normal average of 32, and snowfall during that time was 23.9 inches, compared with a normal of 20.3.
But temperatures were below normal on 52 days between Dec. 20, 2014, and March 19 this year, including 27 strung through February and early March.
El Nino is a periodic warming of the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean that affects weather patterns in North America.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac, however, predicts that this winter will be colder and slightly drier than normal, but with above-average snowfall, for the Ohio Valley region.