The NewsWeather forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday issued their latest outlook for the United States, and there’s at least one piece of hopeful news for a state that has already had a wild year, weather-wise: California.
But according to NOAA’s latest forecasts, temperatures for May through July are highly likely to be in line with historical averages across California and Nevada.
For May, much of California could even see cooler-than-normal conditions, the agency said.
This could mean the snow’s melting would be more gradual than abrupt, more beneficial to water supplies than destructive to homes and farms.
“The picture is relatively optimistic compared to what it could be,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, part of the University of California, Berkeley.