Insider Blog: Why the holiday travel forecast is so warm and dry

Wednesday will be calm for much of the Midwest, but as you head towards the coasts things become more active. 

And that's the theme going forward, with travel impacts expected thanks to snow in the Intermountain West and a wetter than average pattern for the West Coast.

Friday becomes more of the same for folks out west, especially through Oregon and Washington, with the great lakes seeing snow by Christmas Eve. 

On that note, snow looks mostly confined to the northern most states out east, and the Rockies out west, especially come Christmas morning. 

Our calm weather comes on a La Niña year, where the pacific ocean is cooler than normal. These years can bring us big temperature swings, stronger winter systems, and even drought. 

What we seem to be missing is the strong winter systems. 

La Niña typically brings the jet stream north into the central U.S. This can put us in the middle of either warmer or cooler than average weather. The same can be said with wet and dry weather. 

La Niña may have some impact here, but there are many factors at play. While we have seen some, there haven't been many strong waves sourced from the jet stream. We have also seen little in the way of gulf moisture. This meteorological winter has favored the dry side, as much of the Midwest has seen dry conditions in the last 30 days, with more moisture just to our east. 

That trend looks to continue in the next week, with temperatures continuing on their warm trend as well.