Will La Nina Bring More Snow to North America, Europe?

(Dec. 3) - December may have just begun, but the harsh realities of winter have already set in for large portions of North America and Europe - and another storm will provide a course of snow in its aftermath from the northern Plains to parts of the South through the weekend.The La Nina that U.S. government forecasters have been talk about since May is at least partly responsible and will remain to determine the conditions for the winter.

urrent Northern Hemisphere snow cover is extensive. This includes Western Europe, where this week the earliest snowstorm since 1993 crippled travel and further strained financially strapped municipalities that required to cope with the cleanup. Snow also covers the area from the Pacific Northwest to the northern Plains, where potent storms last week interrupted holiday travel. In the mountains, the snow depth can be calculated by feet, and still comparatively low-elevation locations, such as Salt Lake City, have had plenty of early-season snowfall.The force currently producing snow from North Dakota to Illinois will go into the Carolinas by Saturday night, leaving a swath snow on its path. The heaviest snow - up to 10 inches - will be modified to the Plains and parts of the Midwest, but snow will gather as far south as the mountains of western North Carolina and northern Tennessee. Lighter snow showers will probably get it into some cities in North Carolina, such as Raleigh and possibly even Charlotte on Saturday night.The ongoing La Nina, which is a cooling of sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, has contributed to the early-season winter. But it affects some parts of the public more than others.

Glyn Kirk, AFP / Getty Images

A snow-covered lane in Brighton, southern England, exemplifies the harsh early-winter weather that's struck Western Europe.

During a La Nina winter, especially when the result is pretty strong, as this season's is expected to become, storms across the northerly section of the area come more often and are often more acute than during a non-La Nina winter. The event is typically heavier than normal snow in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, along with a greater frequency of storms in the northern Plains and parts of the upper Midwest. The effects of La Nina on Western Europe's weather are typically more subtle, with no well-defined repercussions. Therefore, the early bout of winter weather cannot be directly attributed to La Nina in that voice of the world. The U.K. Met Office, which is the U.K.'s interpretation of the National Weather Service, chalks up winter's harsh start to current Atlantic Ocean weather patterns.

Sponsored Links

It's crucial to see the function that La Nina is acting now in place to help anticipate the remainder of the winter.Since the c in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies is a reflection of La Nina, the weather pattern creating the blow is probably to continue. It might end up being a banner winter for ski resorts and a hard year for travelers.For Western Europe, which is like to the northeast United States in the sensation that La Nina does not maintain an obvious influence on the weather, the phenomenon creating the early-season snow and cold might break, allowing for a more normal weather pattern to get hold.La Nina, which way "the daughter" in Spanish, is the reverse of El Nino, which way "the boy." An El Nino is a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the same area of the equatorial Pacific and also affects global weather patterns. The influences are different, however. Across the United States, an El Nino winter typically results in more and stronger storms moving across the southerly region of the country, with drier and warmer conditions in the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies. In Europe, an El Nino tends to answer in colder than average winters.