Minnesota Anticipates Mild Winter with Reduced Snowfall in 2023’s El Niño Pattern

(KNSI) – Central Minnesota should see less snow and above-average temperatures this winter season.

National Weather Service meteorologist Tyler Hasenstein explains we’re in an El-Niño pattern. “That typically means we end up getting missed by some of the bigger systems that we may have been hit with in previous years. They either end up too far south or too far north. We still get some snow here or there because we’re in Minnesota after all. We do have our chances for clippers and systems at various times.”

The weather pattern is predicted to dampen snow totals for the region. “When it comes to El Niño years, we do end up with quite a bit less snowfall. Typically, around maybe ten inches to around a foot less overall than our normal would be. So normal [snowfall] for St. Cloud for a season would be somewhere around 47 to 48 inches.”

Hasenstein says an El Niño year increases the likelihood we see bare ground for the Holiday. He says there’s only about a 60% chance of a white Christmas in 2023. There’s a slight chance of some flakes flying next week, but no real accumulation is expected.

The 2022-2023 winter season saw St. Cloud weather 88.2 inches. That beat the previous record from 1964-65 of 87.9 inches of snow.

Meteorological winter begins December 1st and continues to February 29th.

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