The weather has been observed for hundreds of years, but since the late 1950's, the technology boom with weather observation and forecasting took flight. The point I am getting at here is that we consistently study the effects that one part of the world can have on another. When observing the temperature profile of the Pacific Ocean, the terms El Nino and La Nina come to mind.

At the moment, the water in the Pacific has been warming, therefore considered an El Nino event. Even though where the waters are warming is extremely far away, the fact that these temperatures are changing have profound effect on the weather in the United States, especially during the winter time.

What has been observed from El Nino events in the past is that the track of storms during the winter time would travel along the southern tier of the US, from Southern California to Florida. However, depending on the strength of the El Nino, tracks of storms can curl up the East Coast.

This years winter has done just that, with cyclones congregating the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic before sailing out to the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, areas such as, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore have been slammed by trains of winter weather this season. Also, this answers the question on why areas in northern New England have not seen as much snow as previous years, due to the track that El Nino has set up.

Once again the Mid-Atlantic is going to gear up for another potential paralyzing storm this weekend.

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