BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a weak La Niña to develop by the end of this year.
La Niña is the periodic cooling of the Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of South America. This is the opposite of El Niño while El Niño is more common than La Niña.
It could impact on our Western New York winter weather. A look back at the last five La Niña winters showed that three of them had below-normal snow amounts. Four of the five had a very active December weather pattern. Most likely because the Lake Erie water temperatures would be above, leading to more lake effect snow.
Let’s take a look at the numbers:
| YEAR | SNOW TOTALS |
| 1999-2000 | — 64″ |
| 2007-2008 | — 104″ |
| 2010-2011 | — 112″ |
| 2016-2017 | — 76″ |
| 2020-2021 | — 77″ |
Winter weather forecasts can vary and the La Niña is forecast to be a rather weak one. A weak La Niña could limit the influence on our winter weather here in WNY.
My early winter outlook calls for near-normal snow and slightly above-normal temperatures. December is a month we could experience some more impactful lake effect snow events.
