TRUMBULL COUNTY Officials expect a milder winter

WARREN -- Slightly higher temperatures in the ocean water off South America are expected to result in an unusually warm winter for Northeast Ohio, forecasters for the National Weather Service say.
Local officials have been told to expect a decrease in snow and rain, to go along with the higher-than-average temperatures.
As well, there are likely to be fewer spells of bone-chilling cold, forecasters say.
"I don't think you will be slapping on suntan oil during the winter here," said Gary Garnet, warning coordinator for the National Weather Service in Cleveland.
"What we mean is we are looking at less of the brutal Arctic outbreaks than we usually have."
This winter, expect perhaps three Arctic Clippers, as the several-days-long Nordic wind is called, as opposed to the five or six normal to this area, Garnet said.
The cold fronts are also a factor in weather patterns that result in winter precipitation, he said. It's all correlated to water temperature measurements 4 degrees higher then usual in the Pacific Ocean off South America.
The warm water mass, called El Ni & ntilde;o, has consistently been linked with warmer winters in the Great Lakes region in the past, Garnet said.
Preparations
At a meeting Tuesday, officials in Trumbull County discussed preparations well under way for this year's storms.
The county engineer has already amassed a stockpile of about 2,500 tons of salt and 10,000 tons of grit as road conditions demand.
The closure of several steel mills in the Mahoning Valley may force the department to eventually find an alternative to the steel-making byproduct it has been using as grit, said Chris Connelly, highway superintendent.
Enough has already been purchased to get the county through this winter, he said.