Des Moines, IA- The calendar says fall, but the thermometer still says summer.
Radio Iowa reports that Iowa’s southern half will see near-record temperatures in the low 90s through Sunday. State climatologist Justin Gilsan says that it could be the start of a trend as the El Nino pattern is setting up, which may mean Iowans will face a warmer-than-normal winter.
“We are getting a clear signal in the climate prediction outlooks for December, January, February, meteorological winter, which are showing elevated chances of warmer conditions across the upper Midwest including Iowa,” Glisan says. “This meshes well with previous years in which we’ve seen El Nino in wintertime and into early spring.”
Gilsan says that it’s still too early to predict how much precipitation will fall in the winter ahead.
“So we’ve had years in which we’ve seen above-average precipitation, we’ve seen years in which we’ve been below-average,” Glisan says, “so as of right now, not a clear signal in terms of precipitation, but definitely we’re looking at the potential for a warmer winter.”
