Will La Niña freeze out SC and bring more snow this winter? Here’s the latest forecast

It’s a bit early to say whether the Midlands will see snow this winter, but one thing is known.

Temperature and precipitation is likely to be affected by La Niña, a system that begins in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and brings warmer and drier weather to the South.

Brad Carlberg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Columbia, said Tuesday it’s hard to say how the winter will go, especially with regard to snow.

“I can tell you for next week,” he said, and laughed.

No snow. Sunny and cloudy days ahead with temperatures as high as the 70s by the end of the week.

“La Niña’s cooling effect on the equatorial Pacific waters can affect weather patterns thousands of miles away, including near the U.S., as well as globally,” The Weather Channel said.

While it can mean warmer in the South, it means colder winter in the Northern Plains with a wetter-than-normal winter in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley.

But this year is a weaker La Niña so it may have less impact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The agency issued a La Niña advisory last week due to surface water temperatures in the Pacific.

The Climate Prediction Center said low-level easterly wind anomalies and upper-level westerly wind anomalies have been observed across most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean and “predictions favor La Niña to continue through December-February.”

Columbia’s average temperature for December is high 59, low 39; January 57 and 35 and February 61 and 37, Carlberg said.

La Nina’s opposite is El Niño, when trade winds weaken, pushing warm water toward the west coast causing the jet stream to move south. This makes the northern U.S. and Canada dryer and warmer and the Gulf Coast and Southeast wetter.

This story was originally published November 19, 2025 at 6:00 AM.