Forecasters: Snow possible this December

By RANDY BURNS
Item Staff Writer
rburns@theitem.com

Residents in the tri-county area might want to invest in a snow sled this winter.

OK, that’s a bit of a stretch, but forecasters are “fairly confident” that those of us east of the Mississippi River will be getting below-normal temperatures and above-average precipitation in November and December.

“If you’re going to get snow in South Carolina this winter, it is more likely to happen in December,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Dave Samuhel.

Samuhel said measurable snow in South Carolina doesn’t happen every year. Nevertheless, conditions this December are expected to be favorable enough for snow lovers to have reason for hope, he said.

“The jet stream is going to be dipping down from Canada,” Samuhel said, “and the Atlantic Ocean is warm, so you’re going to get moisture from the warm water and the cold Canadian air.”

“It’s going to be a little below normal in November, I think,” Samuhel said. “But I think it’s really going to get cold in December.”

(For those who live a little closer to the earth: “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” also predicts a cold winter for the Southeast, especially in mid- and late December, mid-January and early February. It also predicts a white Christmas — but for “higher elevations.”)

Normal December temperatures in this area range from the mid-30s/low 40s to the upper 50s or low 60s.

“You’re going to have some days in December with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s,” Samuhel said. “And if you get some snow, then it’s not going to get out of the 30s.”

Temperatures are expected to be moderate in January before falling again in early February. Drier weather is also expected in January and February, Samuhel said.

Weather in this state is being affected by an above-average tropical season.

“The warm Atlantic Ocean is going to play a big factor in our weather,” Samuhel said. “And we don’t see an effect of La Nina or El Nino, so there’ll be a normal pattern.”

AccuWeather.com Chief Long-Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi said the winter of 2008-09 will be viewed as the hardest in several years.

“It may be a shock to some when compared with the above-average temperatures of last year in the East,” Bastardi said.

But, as always, the weather in South Carolina is nothing if not fickle. Just because it’s going to be colder doesn’t mean we won’t have a few swings back and forth.

“It doesn’t mean you’re not going to have extremes, because you will,” said National Weather Service Meteorologist Leonard Vaughan. “You’ll have warm days, and you’ll have cool days. Weather is rarely normal.”