This winter might not be great for snow lovers
MINNEAPOLIS — The National Weather Service has updated its winter outlook, and it's still looking bleak for snow lovers.
The big driving factor is the strong El Nino that is developing as sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator are warmer than average. That is happening more than 3,000 miles away, but the change in the jet streams as a result can be felt across Minnesota.
Across southern Minnesota, it's a little more likely that winter will be warmer than average. There's about a 40% chance of that.
With precipitation, it's an even toss up among the three outcomes – below, near or above average.
In northern Minnesota, there's a 42% chance that the season will be warmer than average, but also a bit more likely to be drier than average.
Ketzel Levens with the National Weather Service in Duluth says it's important to remember there will still be some cold and snowy days.
"It doesn't mean that every single day is going to be slightly warm. It could be that, or it could be we get a couple of intrusions of really, really warm air. It just means over the three-month period, we're looking at slightly above normal temperatures," Levens said. "Snowstorms will still occur this winter. We are still very northerly. We are still going to experience winter, but we can't say what kind of frequency, number, intensity of events we might see on this big seasonal timescale we're looking at."
She says there are other local factors that will impact how the winter actually pans out, but they're just too difficult to predict this far out.