Another Monster Winter May Be Shaping Up for Michigan

You know that friend that loves being the bearer of bad tidings?

Patch doesn’t want to be that friend.

So, if you’re a polar bear living in Michigan – not that there are any – the outlook from Firsthand Weather for the winter of 2014-2015 is music to your adorable fuzzy ears:

Expect temperatures well below normal.

Again.

But there’s a hint of some good news for the non polar bears, too. Firsthand Weather founder Matthew Holliday says snowfall will be about normal.

Maybe.

“The Great Lakes region will be brutally cold,” he says. “However, lake-effect snowfall could be considerably less this year.”

Hang on to that.

But not this:

“Waters on the lakes are still very cold from this past winter with chunks of ice that were still being spotted as late as this past July 4th. This will likely have an effect on the lake-effect snow machine this upcoming winter.”

The El Niño weather pattern is a bit of a wild card, Holliday says:

“The strength of the El Niño matters and the placement of the above-average sea surface temperatures across the equatorial Pacific matters,. That’s why you can’t come out with one of those ‘this is your typical weak El Niño winter maps’ and call it a winter forecast. It simply won’t work. Also, there are other factors that will be big drivers of this upcoming winter because we will likely only be in a weak to weakly moderate El Niño. The warmer waters in the northern Pacific over the Gulf of Alaska could again be partially responsible for another cold winter in the central and eastern United States, while the West has above-average temperatures.”

If that sets your teeth to chattering and your fingers scrambling for another webnsource, the Old Farmers’ Almanac, which many people swear by, offers less cheery news: colder than normal, brutally so in December, January and early February; snowfall above normal in most of the region, with the snowiest periods in id-December, early- and mid-January and early February.

You really, really don’t want to know this, but it’s better to be forewarned, right?

The El Niño weather pattern could make the winter of 2014-2015 a monster – repeat, a monster. That’s according to Slate, which cites a dead man – Chris Farley – so maybe you do want to know about it.

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PHOTO: Early forecast models say Michigan residents can expect temperatures well below average next winter. But it’s hard to say what effect the El Niño weather pattern will have. (Photo courtesy of Echo Valley Winter Sports Park)