what goes around, comes around
Winter seems to have been on hold this year in some parts of the United States. Snowfall has been scarce so far in places that were overwhelmed with the white stuff by the same time last year. “The Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Sierras of California got more than 200 inches of snow last December,” says NASA climatologist Bill Patzert of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This December they got less than 10 inches.”
What’s going on? Patzert identifies two culprits: La Niña and the Arctic Oscillation, “we are experiencing a La Niña pattern of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. This pushes the jet stream and the cold arctic air northward. On top of that, this year’s Arctic Oscillation has been stronger.”
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/17jan_missingsnow/
