{"id":1050926,"date":"2026-09-08T13:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050926\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T13:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T13:34:28","slug":"el-nino-returns-what-it-means-for-nyc-winter-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1050926\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o returns: What It means for NYC winter weather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fg402g5oi5kkrin6.jpg\" alt=\"What snow looks like throughout NYC area ahead of blizzard\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fg402g5oi5kkrin6.jpg\" alt=\"What snow looks like throughout NYC area ahead of blizzard\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image vod-poster-image--embedded\" data-v-5173a8d8=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><strong>NEW YORK CITY<\/strong> &#8211; New Yorkers bracing for winter can expect a reprieve from extreme, prolonged freezing this year.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WNYW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.almanac.com\/winter-extended-forecast-farmers-almanac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The Old Farmer\u2019s Almanac<\/a> forecasts a season characterized by above-normal temperatures and slightly below-average precipitation and snowfall for New York City, along with its surrounding counties.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;Above normal is relative,&#8221; the Almanac reminds readers. &#8220;While it won\u2019t be as cold as usual, it\u2019s still winter!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Last winter, one major snow storm brought over 18 inches to parts of New York City and more than 27 inches to the surrounding area.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nyc-snow.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"932\" height=\"524\" data-v-2fe2fe3e=\"\"\/>  When to expect cold and snow <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WNYW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Timeline:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Don&#8217;t put away your winter gear just yet. The Almanac predicts several specific windows where winter will strike the New York City region the hardest.<\/p>\n<ul original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WNYW\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\"><strong>Biggest temperature drops:<\/strong> Early to mid-December, early to mid-January, and both early and late February.<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\"><strong>Prime snow chances:<\/strong> Late November, early and mid-January, early and late February, and late March.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>  What\u2019s shaping the forecast <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WNYW\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">The Old Farmer&#8217;s Almanac says these signs of the season are already appearing, and helped them shape this year&#8217;s winter outlook:<\/p>\n<ul original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WNYW\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\"><strong>Return of El Ni\u00f1o:<\/strong> The transition to a strong El Ni\u00f1o means warmer Pacific waters are altering the jet stream, largely shielding the East Coast from persistent deep freezes.<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\"><strong>Wildcard Polar Vortex:<\/strong> Despite the mild baseline, a southward disruption of the Polar Vortex could funnel punishing, short-lived Arctic air directly into New York.<\/li>\n<li class=\"article-ct\" data-v-03e8ff79=\"\"><strong>Shifting Sun and Sea:<\/strong> Solar Cycle 25 is weakening, which removes a warming variable from the atmosphere. Simultaneously, high-altitude wind shifts (the QBO) and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole could inject sudden moisture and storm activity into the Pacific jet stream, eventually reaching the East Coast.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Information from this article was sourced from the Old Farmer&#8217;s Almanac Winter Weather Forecast 2026\u20132027.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox5ny.com\/tag\/us\/ny\/nyc\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York City<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox5ny.com\/tag\/weather\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Weather<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox5ny.com\/tag\/weather\/winter-weather\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Winter Weather<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK CITY &#8211; New Yorkers bracing for winter can expect a reprieve from extreme, prolonged freezing this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":608803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,313,36082],"class_list":["post-1050926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-weather","tag-winter-weather"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117235686354652689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}