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El Nino Continues To Intensify; What It Means For Us

December 18, 2023 Steve Schwaller

(Undated)– There’s a new prediction about the upcoming winter. The National Climate Prediction Center says it could be the strongest El Nino in 70-years. Meteorologist Jeff Zogg with the National Weather Service in Des Moines says that typically increases the odds for a warmer, wetter winter in Iowa…

“Even though there is a slight tilt towards above normal precipitation during an El Nino winter, because they tend to be a little bit warmer, there is a higher likelihood that that precipitation would fall in liquid form instead of snow.”

Zogg says that can have its drawbacks as well…

“Getting rainfall would be a good thing. Any precipitation would be welcome. The problem is if we don’t have any snow to insulate the ground when we have cold temperatures, the ground can freeze. Then any rainfall that would fall just run off, it wouldn’t soak into the ground, and that would be a problem, too.”

Forecasters say we could see a significant storm head our way this coming weekend, but temperatures will be way above normal for late December, and they say the vast majority of that will likely be in the form of rain.