Some of Colorado should see a snowier-than-average winter; find out how Denver will stack up – CBS News

Some of Colorado should see a snowier-than-average winter; find out how Denver will stack up  CBS News

What kind of winter will we have in Colorado? We are starting to get a better idea, and the First Alert Weather Team has released their official forecast below. We are currently in an El Niño, and the forecast suggests it will only get stronger, with a 75% chance of becoming one of the strongest El Niños on record. Before we get into the comparison years, here is the simplest way to understand what is happening. El Niño usually gives Colorado a better shot at a snowier pattern. But another pattern in the Pacific Ocean, called the PDO, is working against that classic setup this year. That could make the storm track less consistent and lead to bigger swings between warm, dry stretches and colder, stormier periods.

The PDO stands for Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and it has to do with water temperatures in the northern Pacific Ocean. The important part is that a positive PDO tends to work better with the classic strong El Niño pattern, while a negative PDO can make that pattern less reliable. The three very strong El Niño winters we've been looking at due to their similarities are 1982–83, 1997–98, and 2015–16. They've all had something this winter likely won't: a positive winter PDO. When creating the forecast for this upcoming winter, we're placing heavy weight