El Nino Pattern Likely To Linger

Northwest Iowa — While it was slow to develop, it appears the effects of the current El Nino weather pattern will hang around for a while — likely several months.

Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the USDA’s Midwest Climate Hub says they expect a longer-than-average El Nino, which typically means warmer, wetter weather for our area.

An El Nino occurs when Pacific Ocean surface temperatures rise, which in turn impacts weather across North America. An El Nino can last just nine to 12 months or sometimes as long as seven years. Todey says the center is predicting warmer-than-normal temperatures at least through early summer.

Todey says the long-range outlook calls for above-normal rainfall for most of the summer.

It follows a snowy winter and a rainy early spring which led to record flooding on the Missouri River and significant flooding on the Mississippi and elsewhere, with billions of dollars damage in Iowa and several neighboring states.

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