There’s no one-size-fits-all impact of an El Niño. The weather event always affects different parts of the world in different ways. Some powder hounds and tube hounds alike look forward to what basically amounts to an extended, highly active winter. But outdoor enthusiasts in other parts of the world don’t get so fortunate when El Niño brings warmer, drier winters to their area.
Arapahoe Basin, Colorado, for example, already fired up its snow-making machines over the weekend…exactly one day into fall. So even if they’re not getting dumped on just yet it’s a sign that resorts in Colorado are confident temps are going to stay low enough for man-made snow to start building that early-season base layer. And history tells us there should be higher-than-average snowfall in the region this winter with an El Niño present.
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A video produced by Direct Weather breaks down exactly how much snow different parts of the U.S. should (or shouldn’t) expect with the upcoming El Niño winter, first showing what average snowfall looks like in a non-El Niño year with color-coded layers on a map of the U.S. When talking about the Rockies, for example, the video touches on how and why the range can expect to experience a warmer winter but still see higher than average snowfall.
“The Rockies are so cold that even with warmer temperatures, it doesn’t really make snowfall not happen. If you’re going from 15 degrees (F) up to 25, it’s not gonna rain. It’s still gonna snow, it’s just gonna be warmer snow if that makes sense.”
The Southern Sierra, meanwhile, should expect to see above-average precipitation. And even though temps should be warmer across the Pacific Southwest, the higher frequency of storms is expected to produce above-average snowfall in that part of the Sierra Nevada range as well.
