Long-Range Forecast Suggests Acadiana’s Winter Will Be Mild

If you are one who romanticizes the holiday season with images of snowflakes and sleighs and hot chocolate drinks, then I hope you have a great imagination. That's because NOAA has released their long-range outlook for the winter season and it's not looking to wintry across the Gulf South.

The reason for the warmer than usual winter is because of our dear old chum La Nina. That's the weather phenomenon that has been the catalyst for almost all of these darn hurricanes this year. The La Nina pattern of cooler than normal water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean means that much of the weather in the southern United States, from California to Florida, will have a better than average chance of above-normal temperatures.

The other component of winter weather is precipitation. La Nina has an effect on that during the winter months as well. As is typical during a La Nina pattern we can expect much drier conditions than normal across Louisiana and much of the same part of the country that is expected to be warmer than usual.

So, you're probably thinking, Hmm, warmer temperatures and less rain, that's a good thing. Well no, not really. Usually, warmer than average winters with below-average rainfall translates into a not so good crawfish season. Let's hope that won't be the case because we are pandemically behind on our crawfish consumption and our Lousiana fishermen just can't have another bad year.

I guess we'll all have to pull out our copy of Horace Trahan's Christmas with the A/C On for the holidays this year. Darn, you La Nina, why don't you go find your friend El Nino. Invite him back to the party if all you're going to do is ruin crawfish season and bring a lot of hurricanes, we simply don't need you anymore.