Summer weather forecast shows extreme heat and storms on US map

A map from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center with the anticipated chances that temperatures will be above normal this summer

Forecasters are starting to gather their predictions for the summer months as the season starts to change and El Niño finally disappears.

The climate pattern, which refers to above-average sea-surface temperatures that periodically develop across the Pacific, had a brutal effect on weather systems across the US last year.

However, experts predict that temperatures will start to regulate before the next phase of the cycle, La Niña, begins this summer. La Niña is the opposite to El Niño, bringing cooler temperatures.

Scientists from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center believe there is an 85 percent chance that we’ll transition from El Niño by June and a 60 percent chance of La Niña developing by August.

However, it’s hard to know how the ocean patterns will impact the weather. Many states experienced some of their hottest summers on record while La Niña was in place in 2016 and 2020.

The outlook at the moment is for another hot summer with above-average temperatures in nearly 20 states, including parts of Texas all the way to the Northeast, according to a pre-season forecast from the Climate Prediction Center.

Much of the West and Central US could experience drought if the predictions are correct, with parts of Alaska also set to experience less precipitation than normal.

Meanwhile, the East Coast could see a much higher chance of rain than usual, particularly in hurricane-prone states like Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Colorado State University recently released a study where it predicted that there would be 23 named storms in the US this year, including 11 hurricanes.

“The oceanic temperature anomalies associated with El Niño are rapidly fading,” scientists from the Climate Prediction Center said.

“The May-June-July temperature outlook favors above-normal temperatures for central and eastern Alaska, the far West excluding southwestern California, and most of the remainder of the contiguous US.”

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