BUFFALO, N.Y. — The winter season is almost upon us and the winter outlook for Western New York for the 2023/24 season looks a bit complicated.
NOAA released its winter outlook for 2023 to 2024 on Thursday with a look at what our weather may be like this winter. A summary of the report can be found here.
Locally, Storm Team 2 is finishing up its winter weather predictions coming soon, with more specific zone snow totals from north to south, but here is a sneak peek.
First, this winter will probably be a bit different than last winter.
One of the main driving factors this coming winter is an El Niño setting up, and it could be strong. Locally, in a typical moderate to strong El Niño year, there are certain things that can be expected during the winter. Temperatures tend to be warmer than average and conditions a bit drier.
And looking at local winter impacts during past strong El Nino years, like the most recent year in 2015-16, there is below average snowfall. Also, there is more variability month to month, and usually a shorter snow season with the snowfall not as spread out over the entire winter.
However the El Niño this winter may be a bit different as there are some other weather patterns going on in the Pacific Ocean that could lead to a possible colder and snowier scenario versus a typical El Nino.
Storm Team 2 will have more on this and what all the weather patterns coming together could mean, in its winter outlook in the coming weeks.