What does an extremely hot summer mean for the coming winter?

Question

I live in Ft. Worth, TX. We have had highs in the 100's for the last couple weeks, and weather men are predicting those highs to continue. This weekend the highs are 103 & 104!! Does this mean that we will have a not so cold winter? Last winter was not as cold as usual either.

Answer 1

One could think like this: since the yearly average temperature chances very little, a warm summer should bring a cold winter to average it out. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that and the weather doesn't have a 'memory' of past events.

A hot summer doesn't have to be that hot, on the average. Cool night temperature may compensate for high day temperature if you live inland, away from the sea. Then there is all those days between summer and winter that we forget to count. It is very human to remember that terrible hot day, that incredibly cold day, the day the wind was so strong that it blew the cat across the street, the day it rained so much that you could fish from your kitchen's window ... and we forget all the days when the weather was just ... nothing special.

A hot summer doesn't say anything about the winter, sorry.

Answer 2

You will get many predictions about what is to come in the next season. The fact remains that even the best weather stations are only 85% accurate. Looking at that, how can meterologists predict the next season? Weather is one of the most complex systems out there, and can only be guessed for the most part by looking at history trends. My answer, I don't know but it will be fun to see what happens.

Answer 3

I've seen it work both ways: a hot summer followed by a mild winter, a hot summer followed by a cold winter.  There isn't any correlation between summer weather and winter weather.