Sioux Falls, SD — Fall is here, and that has many wondering what fall and winter will be like in northwest Iowa this year. According to experts, who were predicting a “La Niña” winter, there now appears to be less chance of that happening.
La Niña is a cooling of the water in the equatorial Pacific that occurs at irregular intervals and is associated with widespread changes in weather patterns. The opposite of La Niña is El Niño, which is a warming of those waters. National Weather Service Sioux Falls Hydrologist Mike Gillispie tells us about it.
He tells us what that normally means for us in the upper midwest.
He says models suggest the first frost will happen around the normal time this year.
NOAA meteorologists had previously predicted a 75 percent chance for a La Niña this winter, but reduced the chances significantly and even removed their La Niña-tracking web site earlier this month.
