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Current weather patterns not consistent with a typical El Nino

Brownfield meteorologist Greg Soulje says weather patterns the last 6 months have not aligned with a typical El Nino.

The National Weather Service defines El Nino as the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean that has global impacts on weather.

Soulje says the past few El Nino’s have produced mild temperatures and seasonal rains in the eastern and southern Corn Belt.

“But, guess what? We’ve moved into a drought there and are just beginning to exit it. Usually El Ninos are more characteristic of a winter time season that’s warmer to wetter and drier. So, this is one for the books, if you will.”

He says a typical El Nino also creates a drier and warmer pattern in the northern plains, but it was a cooler and wetter start with flooding in parts of Montana and the Dakotas.

Soulje says El Nino is expected to stick around into mid-winter and he is anticipating the remainder of the summer and harvest season to be wetter.

“Going forward, I would still anticipate this wide fluctuation of temperature and moisture, but generally moving towards a wetter scenario until we get to into the late autumn season around here.”

He is expecting this El Nino to keep heat in the western states, cooler than average temperatures in the Great Lakes Region and go back and forth on temperatures in the Corn Belt and plains states.

Audio: Greg Soulje