New Map Predicts 2026-27 Winter Forecast: What It Means For GA Snow

An El Niño climate pattern "supersizing" in the Pacific is driving a new seasonal outlook that offers an early look at how much snow Georgia could get this winter.

With a greater than 90% chance of continuing and a 75% probability of reaching historic strength, a powerful El Niño is expected to significantly influence global weather this winter, according to the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center.

Subscribe

Such intense El Niño conditions typically shift the main jet stream, channeling abundant tropical moisture across the southern United States and driving active storm tracks north along the Atlantic Seaboard.

The new seasonal outlook for December, January and February reflects a classic strong El Niño pattern. In Georgia, expect near normal levels temperatures and above average precipitation.

For the Peach State, experts say the most important effect should be increased precipitation, particularly across central and southern Georgia.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says strong El Niño winters tend to strengthen and shift the subtropical jet stream across the southern U.S., making Gulf Coast and Southeast storm systems more frequent.

For Georgia in December-February, that favors more frequent rain events and potentially some prolonged wet periods. The wet signal can persist into February-March-April, although confidence declines as El Niño begins weakening in spring.

NOAA's seasonal forecasts are explicitly incorporating the unusually strong El Niño signal this year.

As for snow in Georgia, there could be more opportunities for snow in the northern third of the state, in addition to sleet or freezing rain because a more active southern storm track.

This means more systems capable of producing precipitation and while cold air still has to be present at exactly the right time, El Niño by itself doesn't guarantee that.

There also remains the possibility that El Niño could produce some significant Southeast winter storms when cold continental air overlaps with moisture coming out of the Gulf.

The Northwest and parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes lean drier, while the northern tier, including the Upper Midwest and northern Great Lakes, has some of the best odds for a warmer-than-normal winter.

California is expected to turn increasingly wet as winter gets underway. The Southeast is the part of the country most likely to be wetter than normal, although temperatures there are expected to stay closer to normal because El Niño often brings cooler winter weather to the region.

The Northeast also generally leans warmer than normal, with wetter conditions favored in some areas along the East Coast.