Has this year’s La Niña weather pattern fizzled out? Here’s what to expect in the new year

Robert Mittendorf

December 30, 2024 at 8:00 a.m.·1 min read

The Climate Prediction Center’s 90-day forecast for January through March shows a better-that-average chance for below-normal temperatures. Long-range forecasts also see a higher chance for above-normal precipitation.

This season’s La Niña has been a bit of a dud so far this winter, with heavier rainfall but also the warmer temperatures that are more closely aligned with its baby brother, El Niño.

Through Dec. 26, daytime December temperatures at Bellingham International Airport have averaged 49.9 degrees, well above the monthly normal of 46.3 degrees. December rainfall has been 4.51 inches, compared with a December norm of 4.33.

“This La Niña is fairly weak,” Logan Howard of the National Weather Service in Seattle told The Bellingham Herald in a phone call.

December’s warm trend could be changing, because the Climate Prediction Center’s forecast for January-February-March is looking more typical for a La Niña, with a greater chance for colder temperatures and above-normal rainfall.

Doe that mean lowland snow in January or February?

“Perhaps. We’ll just have to wait and see. But that would be the time for that,” Howard said.

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