The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) climate forecast indicates that the phenomenon La Niña will influence the climate here this summer. During a La Nina, Pacific Ocean temperatures are cooler than normal, the opposite of El Nino, when they are warmer. Either one has a major effect on world climate. This La Nina may not last past June 2011, but may cause heavier than normal rain and low temperatures in the Northeast and Northwest, while at the same time causing heat and drought in the South.
The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) expects temperatures will be above average in some areas due to the cooling waters of the Pacific Ocean at the equator area.
For the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center expects that there is a low chance of temperatures above normal. Of course, warm days will be normal, in the next three months, but there’s little prospect of a long period of hot days. More rainy days are likely.
According to the CPC it should be a cooler than normal summer from the Pacific Northwest, across the Rocky Mountains, through the Great Lakes region and into the mid-Atlantic. The center predicts above normal temperatures in the interior Southwest.
Above average rainfalls are likely in the northern parts of the country, and below average or drought conditions are likely in the South, especially in Texas and Louisiana.
Fernando Nunes Lopes is a meteorologist in Brazil
