{"id":76890,"date":"2018-02-06T10:38:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T17:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-nina-isnt-going-anywhere-anytime-soon\/"},"modified":"2018-02-06T17:38:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T17:38:26","slug":"la-nina-isnt-going-anywhere-anytime-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-nina-isnt-going-anywhere-anytime-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"La Ni\u00f1a isn\u2019t going anywhere, anytime soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Forecasters
Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction say the driving factor of dry and warm conditions in Southwest Colorado, La Ni\u00f1a, is here to stay. This photo taken at the end of January shows the parched La Plata Mountains just west of Durango.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The culprit behind this year\u2019s abnormally warm temperatures and lack of snowfall in Southwest Colorado \u2013 a weather pattern known as La Ni\u00f1a \u2013 is showing no signs of breaking down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d said Chris Cuoco, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. \u201cThis is turning out to be one of the driest starts of the year in a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the major dictators of weather in Southwest Colorado turns out to be surface water temperatures in the eastern-central Pacific Ocean that come in cycles known as the \u201cEl Ni\u00f1o-Southern Oscillation climate pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n

When surface water temperatures are warmer than normal, that kicks of an El Ni\u00f1o year, which can bring wetter-than-average conditions to the Southwestern U.S., depending on the strength of the El Ni\u00f1o, as well as other factors.<\/p>\n

Yet El Ni\u00f1o\u2019s seemingly evil counterpart \u2013 La Ni\u00f1a \u2013 occurs when surface water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are colder than normal by about 3 to 5 degrees, Cuoco said.<\/p>\n

During this period of La Ni\u00f1a, which can last up to five months, little, if any, precipitation makes it to Southwest Colorado as storms are pushed up to the northern parts of the state.<\/p>\n

And this year, Cuoco said it\u2019s playing out like a classic La Ni\u00f1a year.<\/p>\n

As of Sunday, Southwest Colorado\u2019s snowpack is at 34 percent of normal averages, while the Colorado, North and South Platte, and Yampa river basins are experiencing upwards of 75 percent of normal snowpack.<\/p>\n

According to NWS data, only 0.39 inches of precipitation were recorded at the Durango La Plata County Airport for the entire month of January, about 1.12 inches below historic averages.<\/p>\n

Last year, which was an El Ni\u00f1o year, more than 2.35 inches of precipitation was recorded for the month of January at the Durango-La Plata County Airport weather station.<\/p>\n

Also, this past January was nearly 5.5 degrees warmer than historic averages.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Drought Monitor lists nearly all of Western Colorado and the Four Corners in a \u201csevere drought.\u201d<\/p>\n

And unfortunately, NWS models show no signs of La Ni\u00f1a going anywhere anytime soon. While scientists are able to track and measure global oceanic circulations, and know how these cycles move, they are less certain about the driving forces behind it, Cuoco said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat causes surface water temperatures in the ocean to warm back up toward normal, or to cool down?\u201d Cuoco said, \u201cwe really don\u2019t have that answer yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuoco said the World Meteorological Organization, an intergovernmental organization comprised of 191 countries and territories, has been funding research to get at the answer for years.<\/p>\n

These oscillations in surface water temperature have resounding impacts on weather conditions around the globe.<\/p>\n

In El Ni\u00f1o years, for instance, parts of Southern Africa, the Philippines, Mexico and Central America may experience extreme drought, while areas like Bolivia, Ecuador and Cuba may get hit with catastrophic flooding.<\/p>\n

Therefore, understanding what causes a particular year to have warm or cold surface water temperatures is a question sought after by the international community, Cuoco said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that has been well funded with widespread research in the hopes of understanding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for Southwest Colorado and its parched landscape, every hint of snowfall comes as a bit of good news.<\/p>\n

Tuesday morning, Telluride reported 10 inches of snow in the past 24 hours. Purgatory reported 4 inches, and Wolf Creek Pass Ski Area, 1 inch. Montezuma County received a mix of light rain and snow overnight. Sunny skies and high temperatures in the 50s are expected in the county through Friday, with a slight chance of snow on Saturday and Sunday.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forecasters say dry, warm conditions here to stay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":76891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,28,414],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-76890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76890"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=76890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}