Early Summer Outlook: West Sizzles While Northeast May Catch a Break
Christy Bowen
2 hours agoA new summer outlook is shedding a little light on what parts of the U.S. may see a toasty summer and what regions will see a cooler-than-normal pattern in the coming months. Here is a closer look at what type of summer lies ahead this year across the country.
Sizzling in the West and South and Cooler in the North and East
It could be an atypical summer for millions of Americans, thanks in large part to the predicted emergence of El Niño. How will this developing climate phase impact how the summer unfolds across different areas of the country? A new long-range outlook released on Thursday as a joint effort by The Weather Company and Atmospheric G2 is providing more insight into what to expect in May, April, May, and June.
Most people understandably focus on temperature outlooks when planning their summers. The key takeaway from this forecast is that the summer is predicted to be hotter than average throughout much of the South from Texas to Florida.
The western U.S. will also see temperatures climb to levels not always seen. Conversely, it is expected to be a cooler than average summer for portions of the Great Lakes and the Northeast.
The deviations from the historical averages this summer will not be uniform. The axis of the warmer readings will shift from the Rockies in June up into the Pacific Northwest by July and August.
A similar shift will unfold in the eastern U.S. as the summer progresses. For example, the cooler-than-average weather anchored along the Eastern Seaboard in June will begin to gradually migrate farther south. In addition, the northern Great Lakes could see the greatest departure from average temperatures in August when the mercury slips a little.
Looking at a shorter-term outlook, forecasters believe that there will be a distinct north-south split in the temperatures during the month of May. For example, while it will likely be warmer than the norm in the Deep South and Florida, temperatures are expected to hover a bit cooler than historical levels in a zone from the Northern Plains to New England.