By Pam Knox
A quick look at the temperature and precipitation patterns across the Southeast shows that so far this January, the typical pattern of warm and dry conditions across southern parts of the region have not occurred. In fact, the coolest and wettest conditions have occurred where we would normally expect to be warm and dry. Because our predictions are based on statistics, this is really not surprising. Every year is different, and this one (so far) has not conformed to what we expect statistically. Of course, we have half the winter left, so the pattern is likely to change and we may end up closer to what we expect statistically. And in fact, the next few weeks do look more like what we expect in a typical La Nina year.
The variation from one year to the next is frustrating for people who depend on the weather being predictable but amazing for those of us who study it for a living. I hope you appreciate all the variations that are going on around the earth and how they all act together to affect the weather where we are as well as how they change over time.
Source : uga.edu