WASHINGTON — While some Washingtonians might prefer it if last winter were a repressed memory, area residents might have to get used to the idea of having a bit of snow around this winter.
An El Niño — an unusually warm area of Pacific water — is imminent. The problem is that this is also the same kind of weather pattern that increases the likelihood of a wet, wet winter.
“Typically it (an El Niño) is a wet pattern, which for us, sometimes means rain,” longtime meteorologist Bob Ryan told WTOP. “But if we get enough cold air, there have been some El Niños that have resulted in some pretty big snow storms.”
The National Weather Service says there’s a greater than 90 percent chance that the El Niño we’re experiencing right now will continue into the winter.
Ryan said it’s too early to speculate on how bad it could get. But he also said there was at least one weather prospect few people would want this winter: an El Niño and a polar vortex happening at the same time.
A polar vortex, which is not related to an El Niño, is a weather phenomenon that has more to do with cold air blasts sweeping in from the Earth’s poles. They’re harder to predict and could happen independently of an El Niño, Ryan said.
“If we got into one of those patterns where we’re phasing with some very cold air to the north, and get a lot of moisture — an El Niño — to the south, then we want to keep those shovels handy,” Ryan said.
