Colorado is likely to have a warmer, drier winter than usual this season, according to national forecasters.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday long-term weather outlooks for the nation. A current La Niña pattern is expected to get stronger, bringing colder, wetter weather to the Pacific Northwest and the north, with warmer, drier weather across the southern United States.
In Colorado “temperatures will tilt toward a warm winter,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
In general, NOAA forecasters are leaning toward a warmer and drier winter for Colorado this year, Halpert said.
National Weather Service forecasters in Boulder said Colorado experienced a “hard” winter last year and that our weather this year will likely be less harsh and therefore “more predictable.”
Chad Gimmestad, a meteorologist and Weather Service spokesman, said long-range forecasts favor Wyoming having a wetter and colder-than-average winter, whereas New Mexico should have a warmer and drier winter.
Colorado and its winter weather pattern will likely be stuck in the middle, Gimmestad said.
Kieran Nicholson, The Denver Post
