The Public Maritime and Air Organization (NOAA) delivered its yearly Winter Climate Attitude toward Thursday.
For the Chicago region, the standpoint shows the potential for a drier and marginally milder winter than normal.
Sub optimal precipitation is supposed this colder time of year because of an El Niño weather condition. El Niño happens when hotter than-normal water temperatures are kept close to the equator in the Eastern Pacific Sea. This peculiarity changes atmospheric conditions all around the world, remembering here for Chicago. NOAA reports that this specific El Niño could areas of strength for be.
El Niño positions the fly stream south of us, making for a less dynamic weather condition. This prompts a drier-than-normal example for parts of the Midwest and Extraordinary Lakes and hotter than-normal temperatures too.
“While this is not meant to be a snowfall forecast, a warmer winter with below-average precipitation could lead to below normal snowfall in our area.” says the local National Weather Service.
Overall, Chicago sees around 38 crawls of snowfall yearly, with January generally the snowiest month. Highs are ordinarily in the low to mid-30s, lows in the teenagers and 20s, with January additionally being the coldest month.
“In addition, local climate data for past strong El Niño episodes also shown a tendency for below normal snowfall,” added the National Weather Service.
NOAA thinks about Dec. 1 to Feb. 29 as “meteorological winter” thusly, the standpoint is for this time span.
Albeit a few times of freezing weather conditions is normal in Chicago, episodes of above freezing conditions could keep Lake Michigan from totally freezing. That element would make for more lake impact snow occasions for regions downwind of the lake in both Chicago and northwestern Indiana.