Free Republic

Meteorologists say the explanation for the robust winter season is not so simple. The current La Niña pattern does have an influence on global weather, but Maue said that is only one factor. Bianca Feldkircher, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said a persistent blocking pattern over the Pacific Ocean plus cold air migrating south from the Arctic have created the conditions for widespread snowfall along the West Coast. Although many regions struggled with the challenging winter conditions, some are welcoming the much-needed moisture. The recent precipitation is a blessing for ameliorating the drought that has persisted in the...

Geneva (AFP) – An exceptionally long La Nina weather phenomenon that intensified drought and flooding is finally ending, the United Nations said Wednesday -- but what comes next might bring its own problems. The outgoing La Nina phenomenon, a cooling of surface temperatures that can have a widespread impact on global weather conditions, started in September 2020. However, despite La Nina's cooling effect, both 2021 and 2022 were warmer than any year prior to 2015. Now El Nino, its warming opposite in the cycle, El Nino, could be on the way this year, the UN's World Meteorological Organization said in...

Something weird is up with La Nina, the natural but potent weather event linked to more drought and wildfires in the western United States and more Atlantic hurricanes. It’s becoming the nation’s unwanted weather guest and meteorologists said the West’s megadrought won’t go away until La Nina does. The current double-dip La Nina set a record for strength last month and is forecast to likely be around for a rare but not quite unprecedented third straight winter. And it’s not just this one. Scientists are noticing that in the past 25 years the world seems to be getting more La...

The Northern Hemisphere looks ready to transition into a La Niña winter in the next month, according to the latest outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center... La Niña is a climate pattern where winds that blow from east to west become stronger than normal, pushing warmer water towards Asia but upwelling colder water on the coast of the western United States. The colder waters in the Pacific end up affecting the atmosphere, pushing the jet stream further north. That southern tier includes Southern California, the southwestern states, Texas, and the Gulf Coast states through to...

Bloomberg News seems unaware that a principal underlying cause for both bumper crops and crop failures resides way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Climatologists and meteorologists point to a natural phenomenon known as “ENSO,” the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, while farmers around the Great Plains anxiously await tardy rains. What does ENSO mean in layman’s terms? Many have heard that El Niño (Spanish for “the boy”) weather events bring above-average moisture to the US grain belt. When that happens, certain other weather features naturally fall into place. Surface waters off the Pacific coast produce substantially more moisture from...

They are now predicting this La Nina to go through the summer and fall of 2021.

El Nino is over and the change to the La Nina represents cooling. Last week, the Global Warming Policy Forum headlined “La Nina Is Here.” Why the headline? Because the warming El Nino is over and the change to the La Nina represents cooling. Like seasonal and actual climate change it is a regular event, which in physics means logical and predictable. And some cooling is showing up in various charts. Well, in the ones not altered by climate promoters. Can you imagine having any number computer “models” predicting “tipping points” and out-of-control warming, but it never happens? Actually, in...

(CNN)The world's oceans are now heating at the same rate as if five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped into the water every second, scientists have said. A new study released on Monday showed that 2019 was yet another year of record-setting ocean warming, with water temperatures reaching the highest temperature ever recorded.

For the second consecutive time in two years, La Niña (translated from Spanish as “little girl”) is back and she means business. New data from Climate.gov indicates La Niña conditions have formed just in time for winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere. On Thursday, the Climate Prediction Center confirmed La Niña after analyzing October ocean temperatures cooling along the equatorial eastern and central Pacific Ocean. La Niña is often declared when sea surface temperatures in the region (just stated) decline by 0.5 degrees Celsius(snip)(Lots of nice charts and graphs at the site.)

A chilly winter is in store for the Northeast and mid-Atlantic, particularly when compared to last year. For most of both regions, this will translate to an above-normal snow season. “Areas in the I-95 corridor will average close to normal, within a few inches,” AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Forecaster Paul Pastelok said. “Areas away from the I-95 corridor have a better chance at a big snowfall.” New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, may be the exceptions to this, with early predictions calling for 6 inches of snowfall or more above normal in both cities. Areas prone to lake-effect snow will also...

In the midst of an epic El Nino, federal meteorologists say its flip side, La Nina, is around the corner. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center on Thursday reported that the current strong El Nino is weakening but likely to stick around a couple more months. At the same time, NOAA issued a formal watch for a fall arrival of La Nina, saying there is a 70 percent chance for the flip side of El Nino. "A dry winter next year won't be good, I can assure you of that," Halpert said. What may be truly confusing...

Surface cooling in equatorial Pacific drives decade-long pause in global temperature rise. A new study adds to mounting evidence that cooling in the tropical Pacific Ocean is the cause of the global warming hiatus, a slow-down in the rise of average temperatures that began around 1998. The eastern equatorial Pacific is well known to have an outsize influence on global weather. Years-long ocean trends such as El Niño and La Niña cause alternate warming and cooling of the sea surface there, with effects on monsoons and temperatures around the world. Now a modelling study by researchers at the Scripps Institution...

Texas’ historic and lingering drought has already worn out its welcome, but it could easily stay around for years and there is a chance it might last another five years or even until 2020, says a Texas A&M University weather expert.John Nielsen-Gammon, who serves as Texas State Climatologist and professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M, says the culprit is the likely establishment of a new La Niña in the central Pacific Ocean. A La Niña is formed when colder than usual ocean temperatures form in the central Pacific, and these tend to create wetter than normal conditions in the...

Enlarge Image Climate of violence. El Niño-Southern Oscillation events hold sway over nearly half the nations of the world, many of which have experienced surges in violence during El Niño years. Credit: Hsiang et al., Nature Tensions between the Peruvian government and the rebel group the Shining Path erupted into bloody clashes in 1982—the same year that an El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event scoured potato fields across the hilly nation. Doomsayers might see cause and effect, but scientists have so far struggled to connect widespread violence with global climate phenomena. Now, a new study suggests that civil strife is...

Weather Science: Climate alarmists are now explaining away their failed predictions by claiming China's power plants emit sulfur dioxide that cancels out carbon dioxide emissions. So should we burn more coal? Among the emails unearthed during ClimateGate, when scientists working at or with Britain's Climate Research Unit conspired to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, is one from Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research to Michael Mann, inventor of the now-discredited "hockey stick" graph that purported to show sudden and dangerous man-induced temperature rise. Trenberth says: "Well, I have my own article on where the heck is...

LOS ANGELES — Hillside residents fortified their defenses as fire and police crews staged dramatic water rescues ahead of an even worse storm system expected to hit Southern California on Tuesday evening with more rain, hail and gusts up to 65 mph. Virtually the entire state has been affected by the storms that began Friday, dumping moisture from far Northern California south to San Diego. The National Weather Service predicted an even fiercer storm would roll into Southern California beginning Tuesday night, bringing 2 to 8 inches of rain in most areas and up to 10 inches in some mountains....

DULUTH, Minn., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Minnesota and Wisconsin set records Tuesday for the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in the two states, the National Weather Service said. The weather service office in Duluth, Minn., said the all-time low for Minnesota was set at Aitkin, Minn., at 28.42 inches or 962.3 millibar. The previous record was 28.43 inches, or 962.6 millibar, set on Nov. 10, 1998, at Albert Lea, Minn. In Wisconsin, a new low of 28.38 inches, or 961.06 millibar, was set at Superior. The previous mark was 28.45 inches, or 963.43 millibar, set April 3, 1982, in Green...

A super La Nina is developing. Historically, these strong La Nina events drop the Earth’s average temperature around one degree Fahrenheit, and the drop comes quickly. As a result, some of the same places that had record heat this summer may suffer through record cold this winter.La Nina is the lesser-known colder sister of El Nino. La Nina chills the waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, and in turn cools the entire planet for one to two years or more. This chilling has the potential to bring bone-numbing cold to many parts of the world for this and the following...

WASHINGTON – The climate phenomenon known as La Nina appears to be developing, threatening more bad news in the efforts to clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. When a La Nina occurs there tend to be more hurricanes than normal in the Atlantic and Caribbean regions, which include the Gulf of Mexico. The federal Climate Prediction Center said Thursday that La Nina conditions are likely to develop in July and August. La Nina is marked by an unusual cooling of the sea surface in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Water temperatures in that area can affect air...

NASA says new images from its Jason-2 oceanography satellite shows the tropical Pacific has switched from El Nino warm conditions to La Nina cool conditions. "The central equatorial Pacific Ocean could stay colder than normal into summer and beyond," said oceanographer and climatologist Bill Patzert at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "That's because sea level is already about 4 inches below normal, creating a significant deficit of the heat stored in the upper ocean. The next few months will reveal if the current cooling trend will eventually evolve into a long-lasting La Nina situation." Patzert said a La...