Monday, October 18, 2010

La Nina

We're studying La Nina tonight.  It's a pretty big cyclic episode.  It's definitely going to have an impact.  The bigger and stronger that La Nina becomes, the more likely that it will conform to its well documented historical traits: bitter cold here in Idaho and hot dry weather in the Southwest.  You can click here to see today's latest NWS assessment of La Nina.

We're forming an opinion that we're going to see temps well above average in Arizona this winter.  Daytime highs in the 70's will not be uncommon.  Most of the daytime highs will be upper 50's to low 60's.  Super cold early winter overnight lows will be rare.  Meanwhile, we're betting Idaho Falls will see protracted periods of sub zero overnight lows with a stretch of daytime highs that never get above zero all day long!  I'd be willing to bet that the longest cold stretch will be 10-14 days!  Cabin fever is definitely going to be a huge factor here this winter.

Meanwhile, DUST will be the dreaded four letter word in our Arizona neighborhood.  I'm betting my allergies will be running rampant down there this winter.  There will be precious little rain to settle the Arizona dust.  As always, this weather forecast and $4 will get you a medium decent cuppa joe at your local Starbucks!

(Note Added the following morning: We did a blog post on the historic low level of Lake Mead.  if this La Nina delivers "according to predictions," Lake Mead is almost certain to fall to a level that would require water rationing.  Click here to read our post on the Snowbird blog.)

3 comments:

stasea said...

how does la nina effect or is it affect hawaii????

stasea said...

how does la nina effect or is it affect hawaii????

Marti Spudboater said...

Johnny; When la nina comes to Boise for a winter it usually means we get snow that stays on Simplot Hill and excites the kids with endless sledding. It also means that Harrison BLVD doesn't get plowed timely and melting snow turns into icy slot car tracks. But the best thing about la nina is Bogus Basin usually gets plenty of good dumps of snow and that means I get to skip work and ski powder during the week days.