×

La Nina advisory issued for Minot

The Climate Prediction Center issued a La Nina advisory Thursday, dealing a blow to any chances of a mild winter in the Minot region.

“What that generally means is colder than average temperature for us for the season,” said Janine Vining, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck. “There’s a probability that more Arctic outbreaks than usual will occur.”

Last winter the Minot region was under the influence of El Nino and experienced an open winter with very mild temperatures. El Nino is a warming of Pacific Oceans waters. La Nina is a cooling. Both systems are considered reasonably reliable indicators of what kind of weather winter has in store.

While last winter’s El Nino was very strong, this winter’s La Nina is not. Nevertheless, even though it was slow to form, it is generally considered strong enough to make a difference for the next several months.

“We might have more days that are colder than average, some days much colder than average,” explained Vining. “In other words, we can expect more frequent Arctic outbreaks than usual.”

Temperatures are expected to rarely get above zero for the next eight to 10 days with below zero temperatures and bone-chilling wind chills to be the rule. Long-range forecasts show a possibility of temperatures rising into the teens and 20s later this month, but only briefly and those forecasts could change.

As for precipitation, or snowfall, La Nina’s influence is expected to be minimal.

“Climatologists say La Nina doesn’t seem to really impact precipitation above or below average,” said Vining. “It’s not very correlated with that.”

Of interest next week is the issuance of monthly and three-month outlooks by the CPC. The projected effect of La Nina on Minot’s winter weather should become more evident in those outlooks.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today