It may be the middle of summer, but are you already dreaming of a white Christmas (just like the ones you used to know)? If so, stop dreaming now, as this is 2020, and literally nothing is going the way we want. What do we mean? Just like the rest of this year, winter 2020 is expected to go against the grain and be both warm and dry:
It's official: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just released its winter 2020 predictions for Colorado, and it is going to be both warm and dry.
According to the NOAA's report, winter 2020 has a 50-55% chance of a La Niña developing beginning in the fall and lasting through winter, making for above-average temperatures.
As per the NOAA, La Niña is "sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño as the warm phase of ENSO," which can have "large-scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate."
Translating to the "Little Girl" in Spanish, La Niña occurs via periods of below-average sea surface temperatures along the east-central Equatorial Pacific, and tend to be the opposite of El Niño (warm water in the Pacific Ocean).
While one may think that warm temperatures along the Pacific Ocean would equate to a more temperate climate, that is not always true, as, during a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer in the Southeast and cooler in the Northwest.