With the polar vortex catching all the buzz in recent weeks, federal forecasters say our old friend La Niña is still a major force shaping winter weather for the United States.
Federal scientists from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) confirmed that the La Niña weather pattern, which started in October, is expected to continue shaping U.S. weather through winter 2025-2026, according to a monthly update released Thursday, Dec. 11. December, January and February are considered winter for meteorological purposes.
La Niña and the polar vortex have already been dancing an Arctic shuffle, with the polar vortex often determining how much cold air makes it south and La Niña steering that air where she wants.
As of mid-December, a lobe of the polar vortex is getting ready to unleash unspeakably cold air across the central and eastern U.S.
After that, the vortex may be in retreat, allowing for a more typical La-Niña-like pattern to take over, at least for the end of December and into January, forecasters said.
