SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that La Niña is returning for a third consecutive winter. Weather experts break down what this means for the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe regions.
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La Niña is an oceanic and atmospheric climate pattern where equatorial waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean cool to below normal averages. This phenomenon drives warm temperatures and dry precipitation across the south, and brings cool temperatures and wet conditions to the north.
"The main jet stream will kind of be pointed at the pacific northwest and Northern California will be in that transition zone for much of the winter, is what the outlook shows right now," Meteorologist Ryan Walburn with the National Weather Service told KCBS Radio.
According to Walburn, this could mean more snow in north Lake Tahoe and less snow in the south. Jon Gottschalck, Branch Chief of Operations at NOAA's Climate Predictions Center, described the situation as a "battle zone between wet and dry."
"It is possible to get some heads up on the order of potentially two to three weeks in advance, which isn't as long as you'd want, but there will be some predictability in the sense of when a rainy period may come in to help improve the drought," he explained.
A third La Niña year is rare, occurring just two other times in the last 70 years.
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