Forecasters Reveal When La Niña Could Finally Fade

Why Do Skiers Care About La Niña?

The two ends of the ENSO spectrum—La Niña and El Niño—are useful tools for forecasters working to anticipate what a given winter might look like in advance. Each phase corresponds with water temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean: La Niña is cool; El Niño is warm.

Those shifts in temperature disrupt atmospheric circulation and are associated with historical weather patterns.

For La Niña, that typically translates to colder weather and more snow across the northern half of the U.S., particularly in Pacific Northwest states including Washington, Oregon, and Idaho (the southwest, meanwhile, gets less snow historically). That impact exists—but is less consistent—when La Niña is weak, as it is this year.

In short, skiers watch La Niña or El Niño because it can clue them in to which ski resorts might tally the highest powder totals. After all, it’s fun talking about winter before the snow starts flying.

But as this ski season has shown, La Niña loads the dice, but doesn’t create sure bets. While the Pacific Northwest has certainly been wet, it hasn’t been very cold so far—Washington’s mountains have been doused with rain this month, delaying ski resort openings and causing catastrophic flooding.

Still, it’s only December. Chillier weather and accompanying snow are expected in Washington this week, perhaps hewing closer to a traditional La Niña pattern. 

Meanwhile, much of the West faces a snow drought, with warm weather producing plenty of rain, but not powder. The incoming storm system could tilt the snowpack towards more normal territory, though, given how early it is in the season.