NOAA gives early look at winter forecast for the Ozarks

Don’t mind the fact there is a heat advisory in effect for most of the Ozarks on Wednesday, the National Weather Service is already preparing for winter. The Climate Prediction Center shows the Ozarks to be right down the middle.

For the months of December, January and February, also known as meteorological winter, NOAA is showing the Missouri Ozarks under equal chances for seasonal temperatures. Northern Arkansas has a 35-40% chance of leaning above average.

Will the wet trend continue into winter? Long-term models show rainfall trending closer to normal across the Ozarks. Our far eastern counties could see more precipitation, while northern Arkansas could be more on the dry side.

On July 17, 2024, NOAA released a La Nina watch . NOAA believes there is a 79% chance La Nina will be in place for the Northern Hemisphere winter.

The seasonal outlook for the 2024-2025 winter is reminiscent of the winter outlook for 2017-2018, which was also a La Nina year. During the 2017-2018 winter Springfield measured 5.4″ of snow.

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