Finally, we know what to wear every day for the next six months. NOAA, AccuWeather, and The Weather Channel have all released their official forecasts for winter. And although it's only mid-October, AccuWeather meteorologists are confidently predicting that "cold air will surge into the Northeast in late November," with colder temperatures to follow in January and February. INSANE.
What about Polar Vortexes, are we gonna get all P-Texed up this winter? AccuWeather says YES: the Polar Vortex "will slip down into the region from time to time, delivering blasts of arctic air." NOAA, however, says UH-NO: a "repeat of this extreme pattern is unlikely this year" in the northeast, and "the Temperature Outlook favors warmer-than-average temperatures." The Weather Channel also predicts a "wamer-than-average" winter in our region. However, The Weather Channel also predicts that "cold air intrusions are more likely to be pointing toward the East Coast and the Deep South instead."
Which ridiculously preliminary forecast are we to believe and how much complaining about the cold in our bones should we be prepared to do? Gothamist weatherman Joe Schumacher soothes a jittery city by declaring, "None of the three are particularly noteworthy. They all reflect to some degree a weak El Nino, which typically means close to normal temperatures and somewhat more precipitation for the northeast, which could be interpreted as more storminess."
What we do know at this hour is that some time in the next several months the temperatures in our area will probably be colder than they are now, and the planet we inhabit will most likely tip on its axis in such a way that our hemisphere will be further away from its heat source, the sun. But really it's all guesswork at this point.
