Forecast, outlooks, predictions, everyone wants to know who is going to get snow this upcoming winter. To help in our projections, the National Weather Service has just released their long range forecast for the winter of 2016 – 2017.
The good government scientists are predicting that the upcoming winter will be strongly affected by La Niña conditions. As you can see in the precipitation forecast maps below, this would mean that, in general, the mountains and ski areas in the northern half of the United States will see more favorable ski conditions than ski areas to the south. The ski areas in the PNW and in the Northeast could see big winters with copious amounts of snowfall.
Temperatures
- Cold: Northern Plains, Upper Midwest, New England, New York state, West Coast
- Warm: Southern Plains, Southeast
Precipitation
- Wet: Pacific Northwest, Bitterroots (western Montana/Idaho), parts of the Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley
- Dry: Southern Plains, Gulf/Southeast coast including Florida, Southern California, Desert Southwest
Precipitation Forecast: Winter 2016 – 2017
October, November, December 2016
December, January, February 2016 – 2017