Mild Winter on Tap

Good news?

• As we move deeper into fall, a clearer picture is emerging of what the upcoming winter could look like across Chicago and the Great Lakes.

  NOAA released its official winter outlook Thursday, October 15, and the forecast continues to favor above-average temperatures for the Chicago area. A very strong to potentially historically strong El Niño is expected to play a major role in our weather patterns this winter.

  For meteorological winter, which runs from December through February, the Climate Prediction Center favors warmer-than-average conditions across the Great Lakes.

  The precipitation outlook is less certain. Forecasters at the National Weather Service in Chicago say their current thinking is for roughly average precipitation across the region this winter.

But "average" precipitation might just mean rain and not snow, which would save taxpayers a lot of money in terms of salt and Streets and San OT. 

And lord knows, Conehead needs every dime he can find.