La Niña is Here, What Does it Mean For You?
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  • Writer's pictureKyle Sooley-Brookings

La Niña is Here, What Does it Mean For You?


La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the colder counterpart of El Niño, as part of the broader El Niño–Southern Oscillation climate pattern.


NOAA says that La Niña is expected to continue through the winter.


“La Nina can contribute to an increase in Atlantic hurricane activity by weakening the wind shear over the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Basin, which enables storms to develop and intensify,” said Mike Halpert, deputy director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.


For us in Canada, La Niña typically results in a cooler, snowier winter.


The last La Nina appeared during the winter of 2017-2018.


The first time that El Niño was originally recognized was back in the 1600s by fishermen off the coast of South America. The phenomenon is unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean.

During a La Niña year, above-average precipitation typically occurs in British Columbia, colder-than-normal temperatures in the Prairies and above-average precipitation in Ontario and Quebec.

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