By Kyler Johnson/Gator Galaxy Staff
As much as we love warm temperatures and thunderstorms, they will be coming to an end very soon. The Winter of 2015 and 2016 will be upon us before we know it.
Taking a look at last winter, it was unique depending on where you lived in the United States. Many parts of the northeastern U.S. experienced record snowfall, like Boston, which broke the all-time snowfall record of 108.6 inches for the season. However, Lincoln experienced below average snowfall. On average, Lincoln will see about 26 inches of snow, but this past winter we only picked up around 22 inches, which is four inches below the normal.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) El Niño is expected to last clear into spring of 2016. When El Niño is in play, the eastern Pacific Ocean is typically warmer than average. There are two different phases in the eastern Pacific, El Niño or La Niña.
When there is a La Niña pattern, we typically see cooler temperatures in the eastern Pacific, while there are drier and warmer conditions in the southern parts of the U.S. The northern part typically sees cooler temperatures with some areas of above average precipitation.
With El Niño this year, we can expect dry conditions in the western parts of the United States, which is very bad news for the drought plagued California. Nebraska and much of the northern U.S. sees warmer temperatures while parts of the south and southeastern U.S. see cooler temperatures and wet weather.
However, that isn’t all that goes into forecasting what the winter will be like. Right now, it is way too early to forecast what our winter will be like. You’ll definitely have to take this article with a grain of salt. This is what could happen, but may not actually happen. The Official Gator Galaxy Winter Forecast will be released in mid to late November. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the Preliminary Winter Forecast for 2015 and 2016.
For the preliminary temperature forecast, there will be above average temperatures for a huge portion of the country, including all of Nebraska. In the southeastern part of the U.S., cooler conditions can be expected. This will be a big improvement compared to the past couple of winters, for the northern United States at least. 
