NOAA, AccuWeather Issue 2014-2015 Winter Outlooks

NOAA, AccuWeather Issue 2014-2015 Winter Outlooks
Thursday, October 16th 2014
Posted by @brendansweather

This week both AccuWeather and NOAA released their Winter Outlooks. As is typically the case, NOAA’s outlook is far more conservative with any bold predictions (much of the country, according to them, will see equal chances for near-normal, colder than normal, and warmer than normal temperatures), while the AccuWeather’s outlook is a bit more descriptive for most regions.

NOAA’s Winter Outlook
NOAA has put out an outlook that features a warm west western US and a cool South. The outlook from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center will not come as welcome news for those in the west hoping for a real winter. For Dec-Feb NOAA has greater than 50% chances for warmer than normal temperatures across the west, with equal chance for much of the middle of the country (including Colorado), and greatest odds for below normal temperatures across the South.

Source: NOAA
As for precipitation, Colorado is again under the equal chances category -- with the exception of extreme southern Colorado which is included in the >33% chance for above normal precipitation (looks very Nino).

See article for more graphs/information.