Eye On Weather: Winter Weather Outlook

BOSTON (CBS) -- This year, WBZ-TV's meteorologists say you can count on a classic New England winter and all the snow and ice that comes along with it. All that precipitation doesn't mean an end to the state's ongoing drought, though.

This year's snow might help address the drought across the state, but chief meteorologist Eric Fisher said we'd need to get record amounts to completely remedy the situation. In fact, the state has seen below average rainfall for the past few years. Not even the heavy winter of 2014 to 2015 could get those water tables back up.

"It was a lot of cold, fluffy snow fall, so when you melt it down, not a lot of water," Danielle Niles said.

Niles classified the period of intense snow to a record breaking drought as weather extremes. It might be attributed to climate change, but Pamela Gardner said the real question is how does that change impact our local forecast. Warmer temperatures do not necessarily mean less snow, Gardner said.

"I think this winter we can count on a classic, typical New England winter," Niles said. "We're not going to get off as easy as last year."

"I think this time around, with the La Niña in place and that El Niño gone, we're in for a pretty good season here," Barry Burbank said. "55 to 60 [inches of snow] around Boston seems to be the most likely amount we were talking about."

That's good news for skiers, and it might be good for the drought, Gardner said, as long as it's the right kind of snow.

"We need good snows with good moisture content, a lot of water," she said. "We don't need the dry fluffy snow, we need the icy stuff too. If we get that, a lot of wet snows over a couple years, hopefully it will be gone."