11/16/07 A La Nina winter

Washington Ag November 16, 2007 Eastern Washington professor of geography Robert Quinn has issued his winter weather forecast for the northwest. Quinn's forecast is based on two central factors, we are in a La Nina and there is a warm water pool in the Gulf of Alaska. Quinn: "And generally that tends to favor a good strong what we call long wave trough. That is the storm generating area. So I expect a very wet active winter in terms of Pacific storms but a fairly long over water trajectory So I am not looking for a bitterly cold winter. But a definitely wet winter. Certainly plenty of snow in the mountains. Probably average snowfall down here. We will get our 40 inches, but I am not looking for a monstrous snowfall winter in the lowlands." Quinn says a La Nina is usually associated with a couple of artic outbreaks in the winter. Quinn: "But again I am not looking for one of those monstrous, dominating artic winters where artic outbreaks become the norm for three weeks on end. So with that Pacific pattern being the dominant storm generating area I think you will see a fairly normal temperature regime and therefore the main effect is going to be abundant moisture." I'm Bob Hoff.