NOAA Winter Outlook: What The 3rd La Niña Winter Means For U.S.

ACROSS AMERICA — A new winter outlook holds some potentially good news for some Americans who are bracing for dramatically higher heating bills.

A La Niña climate pattern returning for the third consecutive winter is driving warmer-than-average temperatures for the Southwest and along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s U.S. Winter Outlook for December through February

Below-normal temperatures are favored from the Pacific Northwest eastward to the western Great Lakes and the Alaska Panhandle.

Drought conditions are present across about 60 percent of the country, and the La Niña climate pattern may extend the drought to the Gulf Coast, Jon Gottschalck, of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said in a news release. Parts of the western U.S. and southern Great Plains will be the hardest hit by the dry weather, he said.

The predictions call for wetter-than-average conditions for areas of the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.

• Related: Sharp Increases In Home Heating Costs Expected This Winter