La Nina Could Bring a Cold & Snowy Winter to Philly & Jersey, NOAA Says

For the past couple of years, it seems as if our winters have not been too bad, but that might all be over soon.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a La Niña pattern has arrived, meaning it could be a colder and stormier winter for the northern half of the country.

You’re probably thinking “well what the heck is La Niña?” La Niña is best described as sea surface temperatures that are colder than normal in the Pacific Ocean nearest to the equator. It's essentially the opposite of El Niño, which is a warming of the sea surface across the pacific. These both happen every couple of years, NOAA's scientists say.

The National Weather Service has not issued a final forecast for the winter of 2020-2021 just yet, but this is a bad sign.

There's some hope, however, from the National Weather Service. Last week they issued an updated extended outlook for December, January and February actually showed the current odds are favoring above-average temperatures in our area:

Not only is this going to affect our winter, but this also has a huge impact on this hurricane season. This front could potentially cause extreme hurricanes not only across the world but also in our area. I’m sure you remember how Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on us here on the east coast. That superstorm arrived in a La Niña year.

There are many people that don’t believe that this will have an effect on us at all, but I definitely believe this will be a bad winter. Something that has been very alarming to me is not only how cold it has gotten, but fast this weather has switched up.

I’m all for a nice and slow temperature drop, but the speed at which the temperature has dropped here has me thinking this is a foreshadowing of how bad winter is going to be. This past weekend has definitely been extremely cool for this time. I have even been warming up my car before coming into work sometimes because it is only 30-40 degrees out.

All I know is that I will be ready for whatever weather this winter brings.