Brief by Central Staff
Weather – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The weather forecasters say this will be an El Niño winter, which means winter won’t really get here until March.
El Niño means the male child in Spanish, and it’s a term for the baby Jesus and, by extension, Christmas. The weather phenomenon got its name from Peruvian fishermen who noticed the Pacific Ocean was warmer than usual around Christmas.
In the United States, an El Niño winter typically means big storms in the Pacific Northwest in December and January. Then the storm winds move south; Los Angeles gets hammered, and the storms bring moisture inland in late February and March.
Around here, that should mean sunny, dry days until March, when big storms will arrive and dump lots of snow in the mountains — perhaps powder for skiers, but possibly heavy wet snow that bodes well for summer water supplies.
Overall winter precipitation will be about average; it will just come later, according to the climate scientists.
As we went to press, the pattern seemed to be holding. The Oregon and Washington coasts got severe wind and rain. Here, we were high and dry, with highs in the 50s on such nice days that we felt guilty for staying indoors and working on the magazine.
