NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – With people across the nation wondering what the winter weather will hold, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this week issued its winter outlook for 2014 and 2014.
Mike Halpert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center reports that the strong El Niño that forecasters have predicted has not materialized.
There is at least a two-in-three chance that wintertime precipitation will be near or above average throughout the state, according Halpert, although complete recovery from dry conditions is unlikely.
Forecasters are predicting a wetter-than-average winter across southern Alaska, across the southern part of the nation and along the East Coast, while it's expected to be a drier-than-average season in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.
The agency's weather maps indicate that much of California – including Lake County – is looking at having average rainfall for the months of December through February, while conditions are expected to be wetter-than-normal in Southern California for that same time period.
The temperature outlook favors a warmer-than-average winter in Alaska and also in a band extending from the West Coast through most of the Intermountain West, and across the US-Canadian border to New England.
Colder-than-average conditions are favored in the south-central and southeastern states.
For the full report, see the video above.