La Niña continues to bring a mild winter to the Tri-State

CINCINNATI - It’s been a mild winter in the Tri-State with above average temperatures and above average rainfall.

Since Dec. 1, we’ve seen 12.34 inches of rainfall at CVG, falling well above our seasonal norm of 7.81 inches. That’s 4.53 inches above average!

Our snowfall, on the other hand, has been well below average. Typically, we should have 15.8 inches of snowfall by this time of year, but we’ve only seen 4.1 inches, putting us 11.7 inches below average.

This time last year, CVG had seen 31.7 inches of snowfall as we had a very active December. What a difference a year makes.

So WHY have we seen such little rainfall this year? We can blame La Niña.

Right now we are in a mild La Niña, which means a warm and wet winter for the Midwest and the Ohio Valley.

While we’re expected, and have seen above average precipitation, we’ve seen a lack of snow due to the warmer than average temperatures.

So what does La Niña mean for our summer?

We’ve got great news in the forecast when it comes to La Niña… it goes away for summer.

We fall into what’s called “ENSO-neutral conditions,” which means we aren’t in a La Niña or El Niño pattern, bringing the Tri-State average summer weather.

The Climate Prediction Center just released its forecast for the coming months, and when looking at the summer forecast, we should have temperatures near average and near average precipitation as well.

To get more information on La Niña/El Niño go here: http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/lanina_new_faq.html