Outlook For La Nina Winter Means No Relief In Sight For Texas Drought

[hatrack]

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Federal weather forecasters released their best guess for this winter's weather for the United States on Thursday, and for many regions of the country the forecast calls for more of the same: Yet more hot, dry conditions for drought-parched Texas and the southern plains, and potential for another big snowpack in the Northwest and northern Rocky Mountains. "I've learned to be pessimistic about this particular drought," said John Nielsen-Gammon, state climatologist for Texas, which set a new record for the driest 12 consecutive months back in September and where some counties would need 15 or more inches of rain in a month to end the drought.

Meanwhile in Montana, where a runoff-swollen Yellowstone River carried off a 12-inch pipe buried five feet under the riverbed this spring, dumping 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the river, the state is looking to see another year of unusually heavy snow.

The predictions stem mostly from continuing La Niña patterns in the Pacific Ocean – a massive pool of colder-than-normal water in the equatorial Pacific – that will continue to drive long-term weather patterns across North America this winter, forecasters with the federal Climate Prediction Center said.

But forecasters say the fingerprints of climate change are apparent: "One thing is certain: Every weather event that now happens is taking place in the context of our changing environment," said Brady Phillips, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the heat generated by heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the past 50 years. Recent research suggests global warming can worsen the effects of El Niño and La Niña events.

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http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2011/11/winter-weather

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[Gman]

2. Still, we've had more rain this fall than what we had fall last year

I've had about 5" in about the last 6 weeks. Other areas more, some a little less. Gonzales, Tx had 1.75" this past Tuesday while I got about .5". This compared to virtually nothing last fall. If the La Nina stays no more than weak to moderate and peaks by January as the November NOAA ENSO report says it might, we could have a wetter spring and we might see some relief.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.html

[Skittles]

3. I used the AC in my car yesterday

it's the MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER