By Joel Gratz

“Hey La Nina, what’s in it for me?” When geek-speak goes mainstream, you know the nerds must have a hot topic on their hands. You might think that I’m talking about The Facebook Movie (“The Social Network”), where geeks write computer code over shots of Tequila. But not quite.

I’m actually talking about meteorology. With the words La Nina getting mainstream attention this fall, all skiers are scrambling to hone their weather skills in hopes of finding just what “The Girl” (or “The Nina” according to Chris Farly) has in store for them. As a meteorologist and lover of snow and skiing, I’m here to turn the geek speak into snow information.

Early snow covers Heavenly on Nov. 9. Photo/Kathryn Reed

To save you most of the suspense, here’s the conclusion right up front. If you’re further north in the U.S., you’ll probably see higher than average snowfall. If you’re further south in the U.S., you’ll probably see lower than average snowfall. Don’t worry; there are more details in a bit.

You might be thinking, “Why do we care about La Nina, or El Nino?” In short, it’s really the only reliable clue that meteorologists have to predict temperature and precipitation patterns months and seasons in advance.

Meteorologist Joel Gratz is the creator of ColoradoPowderForecast and is based in Boulder, CO. Data from Tony Crocker contributed to this article. His website has additional information on the impacts of El Nino and La Nina on snowfall.

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