Feel the Love for La Nina

You should always thank your parents when they do something nice, so major props to Ma Nature and Pa Winter for dumping storm after storm upon us so far this winter. But you know who also deserves thanks? It's the baby of the family, La Nina.

La Nina is the name meteorologists have given to a period of abnormal cooling of the Equitorial Pacific Ocean waters. (The bigger, older, and more popular brother, El Nino, means there are abnormally warm Equitorial Pacific Ocean waters.) When these ocean waters are cooler, as they have been this winter, they historically have produced more precipitation in the Northwest and Southeast. You may not have noticed but this winter our snow storms have originated out of the--ta-dah!--Northwest and Southeast, often combining their efforts when they have reached the Atlantic coast.

(The 2nd bend in the jet stream is where coastal storms are formed.)

The important news for GSD followers about this La Nina winter is that the storms are supposed to keep on coming and coming and coming. If you want more detailed information, check out this report about Forecasting God Joe Bastardi's long-range forecasts. Dee-lightful and dee-licious.

(We'll post about the big blizzard potential for Wednesday later tonight.)