Eau Claire (WQOW)-Forecasters
are expecting a warmer winter in Wisconsin
this season.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say we'll see less snow
this winter.
"When we say this winter will
be warmer than average, it might be just a couple degrees warmer than the
average high temperature," says Nick Grunseth, meteorologist.
According to forecasters Wisconsin could see
slightly warmer than average temperatures and below average precipitation
"This prediction is focusing on
the long-term, over three months, from December, January and February. So
there's still that variability involved, we could still get a big winter storm
that drops several inches of snow. It could happen on several occasions but by
the time all is said and done when you compare all the numbers and do all the
math we may end up falling short for snow fall compared to the average and the
same thing with temperature," says Grunseth.
Wisconsin winters are largely driven by the
ocean temperatures.
"Last winter was a La Nina
winter and typically La Nina winters mean snowier and cooler conditions for us
but because these oscillations in the oceans were out of phase with the La Nina
we actually had that really warm winter," says Grunseth.
However you shouldn't compare this
winter to last year.
"Last winter was such an
extreme. It was so warm, we didn't have much for snow and a lot of our
precipitation fell as rain because of the warmer temperatures," says
Grunseth.
Meteorologist Nick Grunseth says
it's important to keep in mind that these predictions need to be taken with a
grain of salt and we really just have to wait and see.
"if you get one little change,
just one little change that happens in the ocean or somewhere else we could be
in a colder or snowier winter," says Grunseth.
The last
several Wisconsin winters have been much
warmer than usual but we've only set one record low since 2000. NOAA is also
predicting warmer than average temperatures to the west this winter while Florida could be colder
than normal.
