Winter Wx Forecast: La Nina In Charge
What Will This Winter’s La Nina Bring To Snow Country?
In a La Nina year, the polar jet stream typically gets bent south, bringing cold air to southern Canada/northern US.
Credit: NOAA/NWS
El Nino, the inflow of warm water in the east/central tropical Pacific, has faded away. The El Nino event which started in March 2015 and lasted until early 2016 was one of the warmest in the past 30 years. You know the result: Lots of snow in the West, not so much in the East.
This year, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center is reporting those warm waters off Peru have cooled off. In fact, the June surface water temperature is even cooler than they were in May this year. So, in El Nino’s place comes La Nina. She can cause as much mischief with the weather as her brother.
Briefly, La Nina causes the polar jet stream to move southward, bringing colder temperatures than normal to the northern US and most of Canada. On the other hand, temps are typically warmer in the Southwest and southern plains. As for precipitation, La Nina usually brings wet weather to the upper US and Canada and drier weather in a band that goes across the southern half of the US.
Ergo, cold temperatures plus wet weather equal more potential snow in the northern band (including New England, Hallelujah!) and not so much in the southern half.
Remember, this is a prediction and not a forecast. Don’t book your vacation plans yet.
Stay tuned, we will be watching winter predictions as they develop.
Skiing Eye Candy For Hot Summer Days
Yes, It’s An Ad, But—Wow—Some Awesome Videography.
Okay, okay, this is a video ad for CMH Heli Skiing, but it’ll do for a bit of a visual fix for these mid summer days. (BTW, we weren’t paid to show you this.)
Back in the early 70s, we wrote some captions for high-quality pictures sent into SKIING magazine by Hans Gmoser, the pioneer of heli-skiing in the Canadian Rockies. We remember those black and white pictures were almost abstracts with spare shapes and ski trails traced on white snow fields. Heli-skiing was pretty simple then: Go to Banff, get on helicopter, go to back country, ski, repeat.
Now, the CMH Heli Skiing organization has morphed into a travel-adventure-year round, experience vacation with lodges and even, gulp, summer activities. Well, done, Hans.
In any case, the video clip gives you a flavor of what heli skiing is all about. And a cooling waft of air from the Canadian Rockies for these triple-H summer days.
Heli-Skiing in the Canadian Rockies: A peak skiiing experience.
Credit: CMH
The Perfect Southwest Road Trip for Fit Seniors
Ten Days of Ancient Cliff Dwellings and Thousand Year Rock Art.
It’s the 100th Anniversary of the National Parks Service, so my wife and I invited a friend to join us on a ten-day road trip to the Four Corners where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. We spent two nights each in Mesa Verde National Park, Canyon de Chelly, Bluff, Utah, and then headed north to Capitol Reef National Park. Each place is rich in ancient cliff dwellings and thousand year old rock art.
The trip combined scenery, culture, nice lodging, and, at times, unusual shopping experiences. It’s an ideal journey for seniors who are fit and who don’t expect super luxe or expensive hotels. The longest leg was the six hour drive from Salt Lake City to Mesa Verde, but the views and a few interesting stops along the way made it go by quickly.
Read the entire account in The Huffington Post.
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