From the Summit County Citizens Voice (Bob Berwyn):
“It’s too big to fade,” said Klaus Wolter, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate researcher who has helped develop medium and long-range forecasts based on factors like the La Niña-El Niño cycles. Wolter said some of this year’s La Niña impacts are typical, including above-normal precipitation in the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies. The National Climate Prediction Center explained that water temperatures are below normal along the full lengths of the Pacific Coasts of both North and South America. The coolness extends up to 600-feet deep into the water, making it likely La Niña will persist well into spring…
“There’s a lot of discussion about that right now,” Wolter said. And while the Front Range is expected to be somewhat dry during a La Niña, this year has been one of the driest on record for parts of the region, including Boulder, which has only seen 2 inches of snow through mid-December, putting this season on track to be the driest in 117 years of record-keeping. Wolter said one of the big factors in the Front Range weather has been the absence of any Arctic air masses moving south to help trigger precipitation. For December, that means temperatures have running 4 to 6 degrees above normal in many locations in Colorado.