Warm Welcome for Old-Man Winter: What if Winter Never Arrives?

Dreaming of a white Christmas? That’s difficult to imagine with temperatures hovering around 60 degrees this weekend, less than two weeks before winter’s favorite holiday.

For most of the United States, a warmer-than-average holiday season has been virtually devoid of snowflakes. Oh, we had that first big blast on Nov. 20 and 21, where 12 to 18 inches fell on some parts of the Chicago area. But that deep snow melted quickly. And here we are, with a practically balmy mid-December.

Since records on this kind have been kept, Buffalo, NY, never has waited this far into the year for snow. New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. — all cities that should have received a dusting by now, at least — haven’t seen any snow.

More than 140 record highs have been set this week alone, the Weather Channel’s Alex Wilson told Patch.

The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center forecasts an increased chance for above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation in Illinois for December, January and February. Most credit for this goes to an historic El Niño, a climate pattern that starts with unusually warm waters in the Pacific Ocean, causing storms and mudslides in some places and droughts in others. 2015’s El Niño is approaching the strongest ever recorded, as measured by sea surface temperatures.

Wilson said the jet stream is causing the extremely cold arctic air to get “stuck” up in Canada.

“The jet stream position will not change much for the central and eastern part of the U.S. While the jet stream will dig south out west, allowing for some colder air to sink into that region, the central and eastern U.S. will remain under a ridge as the jet stream stays north — and highs will be 10 to 20, even 30 degrees above average.”

This year is also on pace to be, yet again, according to the Weather Channel, the warmest on record globally.

Still, even in a mild winter, there most likely will be episodes of cold and snow. So keep your winter coats, mittens and snow shovels handy.

— Marc Torrence, contributing for Patch

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