Andover, MA (PRWEB) October 25, 2011

WSI (Climate Services International) expects the upcoming period (November-January) to typical cooler than standard in all of the northern and eastern US, with above-typical temperatures confined to the southwestern and south-central US. The WSI seasonal outlooks now reference a regular 30-year typical (1981-2010).

?Even though most of the major climate signals, such as ocean temperatures in the key Northern Hemispheric basins and in the tropical Pacific, are again suggesting a cold winter, there are numerous indications that the cold will not be as extreme as it was during the last two winters,? stated WSI Chief Meteorologist, Dr. Todd Crawford. ?The existing state of the oceans are almost identical to that observed in October 2008, which was only a moderately cold winter. Further, we have lastly emerged from the unusually lengthy lull in solar activity that likely contributed to the extreme nature of recent winters. Lastly, the multi-year tendency towards North Atlantic atmospheric blocking has already waned a bit in 2011, relative to the prior three years. This indicates that the atmosphere is likely regressing back to the mean a bit from the recent and persistent anomalous state. So, while we do anticipate one more cold winter across a lot of the northern US, we believe that the winter will be significantly closer to 2008-09 than 2010-11. Further, we think that the worst of the cold across the northern and eastern US will be in December and January, and that the back-half of winter could be significantly milder. In total, our forecast calls for a 6% reduction in heating demand relative to last winter, but a five% improve relative to the 1981-2010 averages?

In November, WSI sees the monthly breakdown as:

Northeast*