Central Ohio Weather and Radar
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — With meteorological fall here and the fall feel in the air, many are wondering if this pleasant late summer weather will continue through fall and into the winter?
First, I say this every year, and it really is good to remind everyone of it: One of the bigger drivers of seasonal outlooks is the forecast for El Niño, La Niña or neutral patterns. No matter the seasonal outlook for our upcoming winter, we can count on warm days, cool days, wet days, dry days and even some snowy days. These occur every winter.
Now, on that note, this past winter did not have many large snow events. In fact, our largest daily snowfall only clocked 2.4″ on Jan. 6. However, the two-day event totaled about 4.5″ of snowfall and was part of more than half a foot that fell within three days. What is crazy is if you asked most people if the past winter was snowy or not, I am sure almost anyone would say not. However, January saw nearly a foot of snow, more than 2″ above normal.
But in general, the season was such a bust (snow-wise), especially in December and February. In those two months, in total, we picked up just more than 2″ of snowfall! For the entire winter 2024-25 season (including the 0.1″ we picked up in November), we only totaled 14.8″ for the season, about a foot below normal. But that was also the snowiest winter we had had in five years, when we had more normal snowfall in 2020-21. We are due for a snowy winter, actually, with the last “snowy” winter (+6″ or more) back in 2014-15.
OK, so this time last year, we had more of a stronger El Niño in winter and spring, and then went neutral by this time of the year. The outlook was for us to be in a weak La Niña pattern into winter. Guess what? That is more or less the same forecast again for this year, with a possible even weaker La Niña to near neutral pattern.
So what happens in a La Niña pattern? Generally speaking, a La Niña pattern for the winter will set up in our part of the country with near normal temperatures and wetter than normal conditions for the winter. But this pattern can be highly dependent on where the Polar Jet Stream sets up for the winter. In addition, if fall temperatures trend warmer later into the season, we could have more wide-open Great Lakes, too…