Ray Wolf, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Quad Cities, says those conditions form thunderstorms out over the ocean.
"And those thunderstorm clusters impact the circulation across our part of the world. And that means they can affect the storm track, or where storms go."
While the Midwest is likely to see a slight increase in temperature and rain and snowfall, La Niña will have a larger impact on the Pacific Northwest and the southern United States.
"And the good thing for folks out there is indications are for wetter-than-normal. Which, given the drought conditions they've experienced in parts of those areas, is good news."
La Niña conditions occur every few years, and often come one after another. The same phenomenon occurred in 2020.
Still, Wolf says La Niña is just one piece of the climate puzzle. Other factors can still affect temperatures and snowstorm frequency on a week-to-week basis, meaning we only have general predictions about the winter season as a whole.
