Source: Corey Davis, NC CLIMATE OFFICE, 11/18/20


For the ninth year in a row, we're proud to share our winter outlook for North Carolina. This year, the atmosphere has offered up a clear indication of the main large-scale pattern at play entering the winter: a fast-forming La Niña during in the fall.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the most closely correlated global climate patterns with our cool-season weather in North Carolina. When the ENSO phase is obvious, it removes some uncertainty in the forecast like we had last year, when ENSO-neutral conditions gave us few clues about our likely winter weather.

This year, a fairly mature La Niña event is already in place, so the main questions you might have are How strong is it?, What does La Niña mean for us?, Will drought develop? and What will the winter look like in NC?

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