PHOENIX (AZFamily) — La Niña is here, and it will likely stick around for most of the winter. During La Niña, ocean temperatures are cooler than average in a critical part of the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

For the winter, this tends to send the jet stream north, leaving Arizona and much of the southwest in a drier-than-average weather pattern.

Even though La Niña tends to bring a drier-than-normal weather pattern to Arizona, it does not guarantee a dry forecast. As an example, let’s look at Flagstaff snowfall over the past 5 years.

Amazingly, four out of five past winters have been La Niña winters. The only exception is the winter of 2023-2024 when El Niño was present. That winter, 68.8″ of snow fell in Flagstaff, which is about 10″ above the normal of 58.7″.

Out of the four most recen

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