By Tyler Ruth ’16

Students should prepare themselves for a remaining school year with possibly no snow days.  Due to a weather phenomenon called the El Niño, temperatures will be higher and precipitation amounts lower.

El Niño is a weather phenomenon that causes weather changes along the Western Hemisphere.  El Niño is a part of a cycle called the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which describes changes in ocean and atmosphere temperatures.  It is characterized as the warmer and drier phase of the ENSO compared to its counterpart, La Niña.  The La Niña is comparatively colder and wetter.

The northeastern United States will experience a warmer and drier winter compared to recent years.  Due to warmer waters in the Pacific Ocean, a low pressure jet stream of warm air will sweep across the nation, into the Northeast.  This will cause unusually high, potentially record-breaking temperatures in the DC-metro area.  As a result of the higher temperatures, MCPS should not expect to take as many snow days as they have in years past.

The El Niño, however, is not the sole rationale for weather predictions.  Although it predicts low amounts of precipitation and high temperatures, there are still plenty of other factors that impact weather in the Maryland area.  The Lake-effect, created when warm water vapor is frozen and carried away by a cold air mass, is another big player in winter weather and causes large amounts of snow in the Northeast.  At any time, a big snowstorm and cold temperatures could strike.  So there is still hope for those wishing for snow days.

The high temperatures and low precipitation amounts are expected to last until late January when the El Niño will lose some of its potency, and the bitter cold and large amounts of snow that January is known for will potentially make its return.  This may especially be true when the low pressure storms that have been brewing south of the jet stream will start making their ways north, which in combination with lower temperatures, could cause some big storms.

Warm weather could very well be here to stay if the El Niño stays deeper into 2016 than meteorologists predict, in which case one better make plans to go to school for the entire winter.  But otherwise, with current El Niño trends, cold weather should make its return, and soon.