(KNSI) – With meteorological fall kicking off, forecasts are for heat to stick around for most of this month, at least. National Weather Service Hydrologist Craig Schmidt has the details.
“Looking into September, I think we’re going to go kind of back to the warmer than normal and drier than normal pattern that we were in earlier this summer. And that looks to continue pretty much through September.”
Schmidt says models are less conclusive as the season wears on. There is no agreement regarding potential trends for October or November.
Schmidt says the driving force behind the forecast is the Pacific Ocean phenomenon known as La Nina. That means the waters near the equator off the West Coast of Central America are cooler than normal. Usually, the pattern switches from El Nino to La Nina and back again over the course of four years. Schmidt says this La Nina is stickier than normal.
“There’s only been about three times over 75 years that we’ve had three straight La Nina years, so this is quite an unusual pattern. And what that does for us is it tends to keep us warmer and drier during the summertime and into the early fall. Other than that, there’s not really a strong pattern of significance for the La Nina for our area.”
He says the St. Cloud area ended summer with above-average rainfall, so the forecast is welcomed. It should help with harvest time as wheat, corn, and soybeans are all pulled from the fields.
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