(KNSI) — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a colder than normal winter in central Minnesota.
Meteorologist Jacob Beitlich from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in the Twin Cities says the call is based on a third straight La Nina pattern.
“La Niña is just one of the factors that go into the global circulation, kind of how the atmosphere varies across the entire planet. But it is a fairly strong signal compared to some of the others and it is favoring a colder than normal winter and equal chances as far as whether or not we’ll see more or less snow than normal.”
La Niña is a phenomenon where colder water is pulled upward to the surface in the Pacific Ocean near the equator. Due to the jet stream flow in the upper atmosphere, that region has a strong impact on our country’s weather.
Beitlich says there are other uncertainties in the NOAA forecast as well.
“It doesn’t really indicate the magnitude or how much below normal [it] will be. It’s more so just trying to show the general trend for that three-month winter timeframe; December, January, and February.”
Beitlich says the snowfall picture is still a bit hazy but will likely become clearer at the next Climate Prediction Center model run November 17th.
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