LANSING, Mich. — I'm sure you've heard of El Niño and La Niña, especially since we were in three La Niña years in a row the past three winter seasons.
Now, we're rapidly shifting into an El Niño phase, and the possibility of that keeps going up as the months go on. So, what is El Niño?
During a La Niña phase, trade winds blow the warm ocean waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west, so colder water comes up from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean into the western coasts of South America.
When those trade winds weaken, the warmer water pushes closer to the coasts, and that is El Niño.
How does that effect Michigan?
Well, the typical weather pattern during an El Niño season for the winter months leans a little bit towards the warmer and drier side of things.
The probability of an El Niño season coming in the summer and early fall this year is over 90%.
Another factor at play right now is that the oceans are the warmest they've ever been with climate experts reporting the warmest temperatures ever recorded.
We are definitely a little bit in uncharted territory here, and what exactly that means is we're gonna have to wait and see as the climate changes.
The last time we had an El Niño season it was in 2016, which was a record warm year.
What that means for mid-Michigan is temperatures likely being above average, precipitation is likely to be average or below average and snowfall will likely be average or below average.
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