El Niño's back: Big snow for Colorado in 2009-10?

El Niño, the atmospheric condition characterized by warmer Pacific waters, is back. That means we'll probably get more early- and late-season dumps in the Rockies. As the above map indicates, it also means we have an equal chance of having above normal, normal, and below normal snowfall this winter. Yeah,...

By Eric Peterson

November 24, 2009

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El Niño, the atmospheric condition characterized by warmer Pacific waters, is back. That means we'll probably get more early- and late-season dumps in the Rockies. As the above map indicates, it also means we have an equal chance of having above normal, normal, and below normal snowfall this winter. Yeah, I know. Not much of a forecast.

But the phenomenon typically makes for more overall snow; almost half of big storms on the Front Range came in the past half-century's worth of Los Niños. This article from UCAR in Boulder does a better job of explaining the ramifications of El Niño in Colorado than I ever could.

For my part in furthering intellectual discourse on the subject, I offer Chris Farley:

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