2010-2011 Winter Outlook

...2010-2011 Winter Outlook...

The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) has released it's outlook for the upcoming winter. Meteorological winter is consider to be the months of December, January, and February. According to CPC, there are equal chances of above, below, or near normal temperatures. There is also slightly higher chances for above normal precipitation centered over the Ohio River Valley, with the western extent covering much of Illinois and far southeastern Missouri. This is typical of the weak to moderate La Nina pattern over the central United States.


Temperature Outlook for December 2011-February 2012	Precipitation Outlook for December 2011-February 2012

The local three-month temperature outlook for the upcoming winter and all of next year is now available. It can be found on the Climate tab on our homepage:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/climate/calendar_outlook.php?wfo=lsx

The complete story on the Winter Outlook can be found at:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20111020_winteroutlook.html

La Nina is when the sea surface temperatures along the equator in the Pacific are below normal. The opposite of La Nina is El Nino. More information about La Nina and El Nino can be found on the Climate Prediction Center's website at:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/MJO/enso.shtml

Below are the new 1981-2010 normals for temperature, degree days, precipitation, and snowfall for St. Louis, Columbia, and Quincy. In addition to the snowfall just for meteorological winter, the total annual snowfall is also listed. More information about the new normals can be found at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/normals/usnormals.html


St. Louis (Lambert International Airport)
	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.	Winter	July-June
Maximum Temperature	42.5°	39.9°	45.0°	42.4°
Mean Temperature	34.7°	31.8°	36.3°	34.2°
Minimum Temperature	26.9°	23.7°	27.6°	26.0°
Cooling Degree Days	0	0	0	0
Heating Degree Days	939	1029	804	2772
Precipitation	2.84"	2.40"	2.24"	7.48"
Snowfall	4.4"	5.6"	4.3"	14.3"	17.7"


Columbia, MO (Regional Airport)
	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.	Winter	July-June
Maximum Temperature	41.1°	38.5°	43.9°	41.1°
Mean Temperature	32.4°	29.7°	34.4°	32.1°
Minimum Temperature	23.7°	20.9°	24.9°	23.1°
Cooling Degree Days	0	0	0	0
Heating Degree Days	1010	1094	857	2961
Precipitation	2.44"	1.92"	2.25"	6.61"
Snowfall	4.8"	5.5"	5.3'	15.6"	18.4"


Quincy, IL (Baldwin Field)
	Dec.	Jan.	Feb.	Winter	July-June
Maximum Temperature	37.5°	34.4°	39.1°	36.9°
Mean Temperature	29.8°	26.5°	30.9°	29.0°
Minimum Temperature	22.1°	18.5°	22.6°	21.0°
Cooling Degree Days	0	0	0	0
Heating Degree Days	1091	1195	956	3242
Precipitation	2.25"	1.52"	1.88"	5.65"
Snowfall	4.9"	7.3"	5.7"	17.9"	22.3"

National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office