Meteorologists say there’s a strong chance for a La Niña to occur this year, and that would affect Michigan’s winter weather.
La Niña occurs when colder than average water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean come to the surface. It can create colder winds throughout the United States.
Don’t expect a polar vortex in Michigan though.
Jim Keyser is with the National Weather Service in Gaylord.
“Many of our La Niña’s when we went back and looked at previous ones, we had temperatures that averaged out over the winter actually fairly close to normal, but it was more of a variable winter. So we did have some arctic air that came into the area but it tended to be short lived.”
Keyser said the last La Niña occurred about three years ago.
“Actually the stronger the La Niña becomes, which means the more below normal we see temperatures in the Pacific, sometimes we actually see a little bit warmer conditions here in the northern half of Michigan at times, so we’ll have to see how strong it becomes, right now it’s a little bit uncertain.”