Believe it or not, how much snow we see this winter or how much those thermometers drop in January is controlled, in part, by ocean water temperatures thousands of miles away.

The Pacific Ocean along the equator is where a phenomenon called La Niña develops. La Niña is the “cool sister” to El Niño. It forms when stronger-than-normal easterly trade winds push the warm surface waters west toward Indonesia. This allows colder water from deep below to rise to the surface near South America. This ocean-atmosphere pattern, known as ENSO (the El Niño–Southern Oscillation), will shift high and low pressure areas out of their usual positions. La Niña will tilt the odds toward certain weather patterns around the world and here in the United States.

Current ocean temperatures near the equator sug

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