El Nino

Despite recent indications from climate forecasters that El Nino is looking less likely for the winter, AccuWeather is holding firm predictions of above-normal snowfall for the Northeast because of a persistent weather pattern. Severe weather forecaster Henry Margusity points to the repeated blocking patterns that could continue to dominate throught the winter. The patterns involve high pressure settled over the northern Atlantic and often produce storms like the nor'easter that dumped snow on areas recovering from Hurricane Sandy.

Count one more prognosticator among those calling for a snowy winter in Maryland -- the Farmer's Almanac. The publication's winter outlook calls for cold and moisture across the Northeast and Great Lakes region. That could mean a lot of snow for the northern parts, but some sleet and rain mixed in for the mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley, according to the forecast. The almanac has pegged  February 12 - 15 and March 20 - 23 for "major coastal storms along the Atlantic seaboard" -- as in, potential repeats of Snowmageddon-like storms.

Hot pants, El Nino, Elite Republican Guard and now "fiscal cliff. " When the national news media grabs hold of one of these slogans, they're like a dog with a bone - or your pants leg! They won't let go and will repeat it ad infinitum, as if they know nothing else. Then, it will go away forever. Hot pants came and went in 1971, El Nino did not lead to El Nina, the ERG turned out to be bogus (and ran). Maybe now the fiscal cliff will join the dodo in the dustbin of history. I sure hope so. I'm sick of hearing it already.

AccuWeather.com is predicting an active summer for severe storms in Maryland, but not any prolonged heat spells, according to its summer weather outlook released Thursday. Storms are expected to ride along the northeastern edge of hot-weather systems as they move from the Great Lakes toward the mid-Atlantic, a pattern meteorologists call "ring of fire" storms. In the early and middle parts of summer, in particular, the storms could bring damaging winds and perhaps tornadoes. But blocking patterns over Canada and Greenland are expected to push long-lasting heat toward the Ohio Valley.

FORT LAUNDERALE, Fla. -- Don't expect another easy hurricane season, tropical weather specialist William Gray said yesterday. He and his associate Phil Klotzbach predict 14 named storms in 2007, including seven hurricanes, with three of them intense. Chances are almost two in three that a major hurricane with winds greater than 110 mph will slam into the U.S. coast, they said. That would be more active than the average year, which sees 11 named storms, including six hurricanes, two intense.

CHICAGO -- At spring planting, grain traders trade on the weather -- the spring rain, summer drought and, this year, El Nino.Unusual weather has captivated the grain trade, launching a thousand predictions of a parched and sizzling summer, with skyrocketing grain prices. There are contradictory predictions of mild growing season and sagging prices. A lot of money will be made or lost depending on which comes true."Everybody is concerned with what might happen, because after El Nino you can get a hot, dry summer in the United States," said Victor Lespinasse of A. G. Edwards & Sons.

TAMPA, Fla. -- David Cone was no match for El Nino last night as a freakish cold spell forced him to miss a spring-training start. With fans at Legends Field wrapped in blankets, the New York Yankees thought it best to keep Cone insulated from a stiff wind and temperatures in the mid-40s."

Scientists studying 60 years in the life of a California tidal zone report today that populations of sea creatures, including snails, crabs, starfish and anemone, are migrating northward in reaction to rising ocean temperatures.While the shifts may have been helped along by a number of factors, including the so-called El Nino effect, the population changes may provide intriguing new evidence of the impact of global warming."The fact that creatures who prefer warmer water are now thriving in a place where they were once relatively rare came as a big surprise to us," said Charles Baxter, one of two scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in central California who headed the research project.

The dry weather that has dogged Maryland's farmers for the past three summers seems likely to persist into the next one, according to one of the federal government's top forecasters.Ants Leetmaa, director of the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center, said the temperature patterns in the Pacific Ocean that set the region up for last summer's drought are continuing.Leetmaa said that although scientists aren't as confident about their long-range spring and summer forecasts as they are of their fall and winter predictions, "the likelihood of drought for the eastern half of the country is pretty good."

While the Gulf Coast sops up after Hurricane Georges' torrential rains, Central Maryland remains parched by three months of drought that federal climatologists now rank as severe to extreme.The damage goes beyond crispy lawns and a disappointing fall foliage season.Gov. Parris N. Glendening is expected to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare drought disasters in nine Maryland counties, where some farmers are facing the loss of up to 60 percent of their corn or soybean crops."In dollars, it won't be anywhere near what last year was, or what [the droughts of]