News

2021 ending with a chill

An ag meteorologist says arctic air moving down from Canada will bring a cold start to 2022.

Jeff Andresen with Michigan State University tells Brownfield below normal temperatures will start in the western U.S. before moving east.

“We will see that here in the Great Lakes, my guess is probably around New Year maybe even a little bit beyond that, but we will see some more true winter-like weather,” he says.

Andresen says a trend toward warmer and wetter weather has been persistent the past 25 years but it’s not evenly distributed throughout the calendar year.

“More of it has come in the cold season—in the winter and spring to a little bit of a lesser extent, and overnight,” he explains.

Meaning minimum temperatures are getting warmer, causing more mild winters much like this year.  Compared to a century ago, Andresen says there’s about 15 percent more precipitation throughout the Great Lakes or about four additional inches of moisture on average.