It may be unbearably hot right now, but winter is just around the corner.

Experts at AccuWeather says we'll have a warmer fall and a snowier winter.The good news is that winter temperatures will be a little warmer than normal.AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Bob Smerbeck said the warm summer temperatures, about 2 degrees above average, will carry through to September, as well as the lower-than-average precipitation that August has experienced so far.Temperatures are expected to stay at 2 degrees above average throughout September.October is projected to be the only autumn month that will be cooler than usual.October's temperatures might be anywhere from a half a degree to a degree cooler than its average.November is when it will really begin to feel like fall, despite temperatures 2 to 2 1/2 degrees above normal being predicted for the month. An average amount of precipitation is also expected.Last winter we had 50 inches of snowfall from October to April and temperatures 3 degrees below normal in January and February, Smerbeck said.This year has a good chance to exceed that amount of precipitation, but will not have the bitter cold that the 2014-15 winter brought.However, the news of warmer weather than last year does not come without a catch. Temperatures are expected to be around the average for the winter, but not with consistency."We're thinking the first half of the winter is going to be pretty warm, but the second half is going to be colder than usual. It looks like they'll average out the season temperature," Smerbeck said.Much of the country's fall and winter weather will be dictated by the El Niño storm that will come around the late fall and early winter. This will cause storms in much of the mid-South, but will also bring much-needed precipitation to Southern California and Arizona.The Northwest and Midwest sections of the United States are predicted to have a dry fall. An already brutal dry spell for the Northwest and California will continue, keeping the threat of wildfires ever-present before El Niño hits later in the season.Meteorologists are able to get a good idea of what the weather will be like in the distant future using technology and techniques that have been refined and developed over the years. The most prominent of these are the computer models that take data from climate forecast systems from around the world and turn it into visual representations. The models can show upper air movement, jet streams, and sea surface temperatures for up to six months in advance. Meteorologists use this information to figure out what the weather is going to be like.They also utilize weather readings of the past to determine how things may play out in the coming weeks. By examining past records meteorologists can have a better idea of what results to expect.Data going back to the 1940s is used to find recurring patterns in the weather.