What's ahead for the Midlands? Chief Meteorologist Josh Knight has your Winter outlook

COLUMBIA, SC (WACH) — If you're wondering if we'll get a white Christmas and a snowy season, this winter is set to be shaped by another La Niña - and that generally means drier and warmer than normal weather across most of the Southeast.

The El Niño and La Niña weather patterns are something that develop along the equator in the Pacific Ocean, but their impacts are felt on a much larger scale.

During a La Niña winter, the warm waters of the ocean tend to push farther west and more cool water upwells closer to South America.

This ultimately pushes the Jetstream farther north. Holding back the bulk of the cold and storm systems from reaching the southern U.S.

Of course, winter storms can still come together.

The chances of cold air and moisture lining up during a La Niña year are lower.

Looking back at past recent winters like this, the snow (when it did show up) was most likely between the middle of January to the middle of February.

It has been a while since we've see a good snow around Columbia.

There were some flurries that made it through back in January of 2017.

Before that, we had a wild snow in Lexington the day after Halloween in 2014 (not much was measured at CAE).

The last big one that hit just about everyone, was in February 2014 - nearly eight years ago!

We haven't had this many back to back snowless winters (1" or more recorded) since the 1950s.

While it's rare, we do have some big events on the record books.

The snowiest winter was 1972 to 1973. A massive blizzard piled up more than a foot of snow and brought a large swath of the Southeast to a standstill.

“We had some snow and then ice and then more snow. It had been a while before we saw crews out here trying to get electricity back and getting the roads cleaned up," says Kenny Mullis, a cattle farmer in Blythewood, recalling that storm.

The winter of 1972-73 was driven by an El Niño pattern - the opposite of what we have this year.

La Niña winters are often more characterized by ice around our area.

Warmer air riding into storm systems from the south can set us up for a sleet or freezing rain event.

Snow isn't easy to come by in the South.

We need cold and moisture to line up just right.

While overall patterns like La Niña help steer the winter as a whole - snow storms happen on a much smaller scale.

Snow and ice are possible every winter. This year the odds are just stacked a bit more against us for a good snowfall.

Big thanks to Dr. Cary Mock with the University of South Carolina and Frank Alsheimer with the National Weather Service in Columbia for their help!