Another El Nino is on Deck

Another El Nino is on Deck

The Pacific Northwest Farm Forum and Ag Expo has been happening this week in Spokane, Washington. Creighton University Professor Emeritus Dr. Art Douglas gave a weather forecast for our listening audience's region.

Douglas: "Well suddenly a new El Nino is forming. It popped up at the end of January. Water temperatures more than 1 and half degree above normal in the region off Peru and Ecuador — in fact there are some areas that are almost 2 and half degrees above normal Centigrade. Any time we start cruising towards El Nino as we go into the spring and summer, it favors a ridge in the West and a trough in the mid-section of the country. So to start with the Pacific Northwest — it means this long period of storminess that started October and is still occurring is likely to transition then into high pressure ridging which means gradual warming and gradual drying in the Pacific Northwest in the Spring and the Summer. If we look at Colorado in terms of grains. They haven't had a lot of good moisture this year. They had some moisture in the fall and some cold outbreaks that probably caused winter kill but overall with the developing trough in the mid-section of the country in the spring and summer it looks like this portion of the country is going get good moisture. And in the forecast I gave today definitely a wet May all the way from Texas up to Nebraska."

The return of an El Nino following a two-year Mega El Nino has been a surprise.

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