Every day it seems like there is a blizzard somewhere in the West. Meanwhile, it’s going to be January in a couple of days and we haven’t had any snow in this part of New England yet. It’s freaky.
Are the two things related?
I doubt it would be accurate to say that snow in one place “causes” a lack of snow in another. But there certainly is a body of thought that the two phenomena are related.
One view with considerable support is that they are linked to the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) - this has been shown to be correlated with weather effects at least as far away as the US East Coast. Here’s a NOAA link.
I grew up in Massachusetts. I seem to recall that a lot of the winter New England weather seems to get it’s moisture (aka snow) and temperature from the Hudson Bay and Great Lakes region.
So while weather across the continent as a whole is somewhat inter-related, I don’t think the weather in Oregon or Colorado is the greatest contributing factor on the weather in the northeastern US.
If we can get those selfish Denverites to stop bogarting the snow, we’ll be all set over here. No white Christmas in my area.
We get our biggest snawfalls when cold air from the Canadian plains (Alberta Clippers) meet up with warm moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico or the south in general.
I just wanted to chime in that I agree that the weather in New England has been bizarre this winter. I just flew back from a visit to Texas a week ago, only to find that the weather in New England was virtually the same as when I left Texas.
We usually have at least one major snowfall in November. By the end of December, we’ve usually had 3-4 major storms. This winter, absolutely no snow to date.
I pulled my snowblower out, and lined my driveway with marker poles weeks ago, only to have them fall over because the ground is still so soft.
Sure looks like global warming here, at the moment.
Answer to the actual question from the OP: Yes, they are related. The snowfall in Colorado is quite unusual for this time of year (I know, that sounds silly, but it is true). Usually they get their snowfall early and late in the season, because the same conditions that usually cause cold air masses to slide south on the plains and blanket the MidWest with snow-producing temperatures will result in relatively small amounts of the white stuff falling on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.
But, in answer to the question posed in the thread title: No, the Western U.S. is not taking away the snow in the East. The East has had plenty of moisture, just not enough cold weather yet.
Yet. :eek:
We in Detroit area are snowless. We are also running over 40 degrees steadily. Some are still playing golf. This is new to us.
Any one who wants our Colorado snow can have it! I am sick of it and we are getting more! Yippie! This coming from a Colorado native born and raised here! I’d rather be in Mexico! 
We in Toronto could use your snow… but we are not paying for shipping.
Bother. They don’t ship to Canada.
It wouldn’t do any good if they did; the temperature is too high. They haven’t even tried to make snow in the Laurentian ski resorts north of Montreal because it is too warm. Neither the St. Laurence nor Lake Champlain show any ice at all (as of Dec. 25 when I took the train). Ten years ago they would have been frozen solid; five years ago they would have been partially ice covered.
And it is not lack of precipitation. I think the amount of precipitation has been normal, at least, but it is all rain. Actually, Montreal did have one small snowfall, a couple inches, in early December. Not only wasn’t Christmas white; it was green (rather than brown).
Are you kidding? I’m loving it, it’s January and feels like spring here in Toronto. If this is global warming I’m all for it. 