I’m expecting another cold and snowy winter, somewhat similar to last winter.
December should average around one degree cooler than normal, while January and February will be bitterly cold and average 4 and 3 degrees below normal, respectivly.
This is quite a bit colder than last winter. Last winter, we would swing wildly in temperatures, so that no matter how cold it got it never lasted long. This winter is likely to be much more consistently cold, with the cold shots far outnumbering and outlasting the warm shots.
Precipitation should be above normal, with several strong coastal storms that will dump heavy precipitation over the area.
Snowfall will also be quite high, probably in the range of 25-40″. Snowfall is a very difficult thing to forecast because it is largely determined by individual storms that cannot be predicted more than a week out. As such, don’t place too much stock in the snowfall outlook. The odds are also higher than normal and higher than last year of a “big one,” a storm like snowmaggedon or the presidents day storm of 2003. This isn’t close to an assured thing either. Most likely, our largest storm will be in the realm of 8-12″.
For those of you dreading this harsh winter, the one piece of good news I can offer is this: Unlike last winter, I don’t expect this winter to last well into March and April. March temperatures may want to average around a degree warmer than normal.
Shoutout to Chien from Damascus, Harry from RM and anonymous for helping with this forecast!
Forecast Provided by Josh Karpatkin, MoCo Student staff meteorologist