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La Nina exit complicates weather outlook

A climatologist says the end of an unusually short La Nina makes forecasting weather conditions for the upcoming growing season more difficult.

Kenny Blumenfeld with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources tells Brownfield the weak La Nina episode began in late summer and fizzled out earlier this winter.

“The situation has turned into what’s considered a neutral condition, meaning there’s neither a La Nina or El Nino.  And in this region, that generally means you could have normal weather (but) you could have just about anything.  There’s not a real strong indication.”

When looking at other indicators, he says professional forecasters are leaning towards a warmer and wetter than normal spring across the Upper Midwest.

“So slightly warm, slightly wet.  By the indications these forecasters use, they’re not seeing any signs of a big drought setting up.  And they’re not seeing any signs of massively hot or wet conditions for the first couple months of the growing season.”

Blumenfeld says warm and wet tendencies have been in place for more than a year and he expects that to continue.

A La Nina is described as a cooling of water in the Pacific Ocean near the equator that’s associated with widespread changes in global weather patterns.