El Niño Pattern Leading To Warmer Fall, Winter For Minnesota

(KNSI) – Minnesotans can thank a switch from a La Niña to an El Niño pattern, for bringing in warmer air over the state for the next few months.

Meteorologist Ryan Dunleavy at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Chanhassen spoke with KNSI News and said we’ve switched from a La Niña pattern to an El Niño phase. “For the next few months, we could actually be seeing our temperatures potentially slightly above normal. That doesn’t mean, 40s and 50s, like some people want to see to stay clear from the snowflakes falling, but we will be more seasonally above average.”

Dunleavy described how the jet stream changes in an El Niño pattern. “Basically, the jetstream would be coming right straight down from Canada and into our neck of the woods in the northern plains. Now it becomes more elongated and flattens out like a pancake over the southern half of the United States. So, I mean, the flow will still come across right around the central part of the continental U.S., but it’s going to have a more driving factor for that precipitation farther south.”

Dunleavy says we’ll still see snow in Minnesota, but it will be more of the heavy, wet, sloppy stuff like we saw last winter, just less of it. He says to enjoy the fall and expect to see some 32-degree marks in late October.

___