La Nina Adjustment Pt 2

La Nina Adjustment Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. Our winter snow pack WAS considered a wait-and-see matter, according to the Washington State Climatologist.

But, Nick Bond has recently adjusted his forecast just a bit and expects to see more snow in the Cascades over the next few months than he first thought ...

NICK BOND ... "And right now, the snow pack of a lot of the low elevation places are above normal. The higher elevation ones are kind of near normal, and there's a few below normal. But just the weather pattern we've gotten into and the anticipation for the next few months is favorable for healthy snows in the mountains."

Bond says the La Nina effect this winter is still considered weak to moderate, but it doesn't take much of a variance to make a real difference ...

NICK BOND ... "I'm not sure if it's necessarily going to be much if any cooler than normal, but it's liable to be cooler than the last couple of winters, especially the winter of 2014/15 was so much warmer than normal and last winter a fair amount warmer than normal. So, just even near normal is going to feel kind of chilly compared to those."

During La Nina years, Bond says it's not certain, but more common to see cooler temps and more precipitation which could come in the form of snow.

He says the combination of cooler and wetter this winter could be very good news for some areas like the Yakima Basin that suffered water supply issues the past couple of years.

Bond says it's still early and hard to accurately predict the snow pack levels on say April First, when it really counts, but things are looking good so far.

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