El Nino and La Nina
El Nino and La Nina are Known in weather circles as the “Boy” and the “Girl” and also known to bring vastly different weather patterns to much of the planet.
These patterns are born in the tropical Pacific and the Boy features warmer than normal tropical waters while the Girl brings the opposite with cooler than average tropical Pacific waters.
Both affect the weather around the globe even here in Southwestern Pennsylvania where we just experienced a very wet summer thanks to the Boy and where this past winter brought us lots of snow and very cold temperatures thanks to a La Nina or the Girl weather pattern. In August, Uniontown experienced 6.47 inches of rain and September brought 6.66 inches. Averages for August are 3.95 and September just 3.18 inches, giving us six inches above normal for the two months.
You may recall how hot and dry our weather was last summer when we were experiencing weather from a La Nina pattern.
One of the benefits of an El Nino pattern is the absence of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, however the Northeaster this past week let us know Mother Nature can still produce a whopper.
Also the Pacific has been very active with Hawaii having three hurricanes which is rare. October can still produce a major hurricane, including the Atlantic Basin and way back in 1954 Hurricane Carol gave Uniontown its most rain ever in a single day with a total of 4.60 inches on the 15th of the month.
Looking ahead, the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting the strong El Nino to continue through late fall and into the winter season and this usually brings warmer and drier skies to the northern tier of states and cooler and wetter pattern to our southern states.
A lot will depend on the jet stream as we will be in the middle of this pattern and at this point forecasters are predicting temperatures above average for us along with rainfall close to normal.
October still will produce some great weather to get out and enjoy the beauty of the fall colors that are forecast to be exceptional due to all the rain we had this summer. Many travel bureaus rank the Laurel Highlands as the most beautiful area to visit and see the changing of the leaves and, judging from all the out-of-state license plates, this is certainly true.
October can be a little chilly as we usually see a frosty morning, but afternoons are mostly sunny and pleasant. Our record high for the month was 95 and our coldest morning saw 16 degrees on the 20th in 1992. Rainfall averages just 2.86 inches and we did have a light coating of snow on the 3rd of October 1974.
Lots of great hiking and outdoor activities to enjoy and my favorite is Buckwheat Festival in Ohiopyle, October 9th thru the 11th. Yummy!