AccuWeather.com, a private weather company in State College, PA released their official winter forecast for the 2012-2013 season. Their forecast highlights temperature and precipitation trends across different regions in the United States for the upcoming season.
According to AccuWeather.com, a below or drier than normal snowfall season is expected across the western Great Lakes, Upper Midwest, Northern Plains, Northern Rockies, and the Northwest regions. This includes cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City, North Platte, Omaha, Green Bay, St. Louis, Fargo, Grand Forks, Billings, Cheyenne, Boise, and Seattle. These cities will get hit by clipper systems which typically are not the big snow producers. Meanwhile, the bigger snow systems will track further to the south of these areas or regions. According to AccuWeather.com, the lower than normal snowfall will result in warmer than normal temperatures in these areas. Near normal snowfall is predicted across the Great Lakes snow belt areas as cold air or warmer waters will provide more than enough fuel for the lake effect machine.
The opposite can be said for the Northeast and the Appalachians as a more southerly track and bigger storms particularly during the months of January and February will result in an above average snowfall season. This includes cities such as New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Birmingham. Temperatures in these regions will start off near to slightly above normal before transitioning to cooler than normal as the season progresses. Cities in New England such as Boston and Portland will see normal snowfall as a slightly warmer air mass will result in more mixed rain and snow.
A wet and severe weather pattern is expected to target areas along the Gulf Coast and the Southeast as temperatures will be too warm for snowfall. Some drought relief is expected across the Southern Plains and Texas.
Drought conditions are expected to persist and intensify this winter season across the Northwest as most of the winter storms will track further to the south.
Rain and mountain snow will bring near normal conditions to California this winter thanks to a subtropical jet that will bring moist air providing fuel for winter storms.
