A US map released by the National Weather Service (NWS) Climate Prediction Center in October shows which states could see more snowstorms this winter.

With La Niña conditions expected to develop this fall, storms will take a more northerly direction across the U.S. in the winter months, according to the forecast. That means states in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes region are expecting above-average precipitation — which could come in the form of snow given the cold winter temperatures — while southern states are more likely to be drier and warmer than average.

“This winter, a developing La Nina is anticipated to influence future winter patterns, particularly our precipitation predictions,” Jon Gottschalck, chief of the NWS Climate Prediction Center’s Operational Prediction Branch, said in the forecast.

Newsweek has reached out to NWS by email for comment.

States are expecting a wet winter

As winter continues, the Climate Prediction Center predicts that the wettest winter conditions will occur in northeastern Washington, northeastern Oregon, northern and central Idaho, western Montana, northwestern Alaska, all of Michigan, a much of Wisconsin, northern Indiana, and northwestern Ohio. Those states have a 40 to 50 percent chance of seeing above-average precipitation through February, the forecast said.

The best chance for below-average precipitation is in southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, southwestern Texas, southern Georgia, and much of Florida.

However, the forecast does not mean that the southern regions are not expecting any snow. As of Friday, New Mexico is a few days into an early season winter storm burying parts of the state in several feet of snow. The historic storm was expected to break 48- and 72-hour snow totals for several parts of the state, said NWS Weather Forecast Center meteorologist Marc Chenard. Newsweek.

Meanwhile, drought conditions could worsen in the central US states and southern plains during the winter months.

“Unfortunately, after a brief period in the spring of 2024 with minimal drought conditions across the country, more than a quarter of the land mass in the continental US is currently in at least moderate drought,” said Brad Pugh, drought operational lead with the Climate Prediction Center. “And the winter precipitation forecast does not bode well for widespread amelioration.”

What about winter weather in California?

The forecast also predicted that California, which has seen above-average rain and snow for the past two years thanks to atmospheric rivers that batter the state in the winter months, would likely “have an equal chance of below-average, seasonal total precipitation near average or above average”, the forecast states. The same is expected for the Central Plains states and the I-95 corridor from Boston to Washington, DC

However, AccuWeather’s winter forecast anticipates this atmospheric rivers will target northern California in the first half of winter, then move on to hit Southern California in January before returning to Northern California for the rest of the winter.

Atmospheric rivers are a “long, narrow region in the atmosphere, like rivers in the sky, that transport most of the water vapor out of the tropics,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.