National Weather Service: La Niña Event Nearing End
It may officially be spring but this is the Northland so that doesn't mean it feels like spring all the time. Ha!
Here's some good news, though: our La Niña winter event, which was forecast to go into spring, is officially coming to an end and soon. According to the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center, there is an eighty-percent chance of ENSO-neutral conditions from May through July of this year.
In case you didn't know, ENSO-neutral means that conditions are "generally close to average" or normal for this time of the year. It means, in other terms, that there is not El Niño or La Niña present. This means, our predicted La Niña conditions are coming to an end and we should see normal conditions soon. The transition began in the beginning of April and is set to continue for the most part this month.
News of a La Niña winter first broke back in September of 2020. After a year like 2020, it wasn't a huge shock that we were set for a cold, snowy winter. We definitely had points during the winter that were a little rough.
For example, we saw a brutal cold snap in February. It was so cold for so long that we actually saw hundreds of hours worth of freeze alerts in a row in early 2021. The first half of February 2021 was also the coldest on record, which is saying a lot when you live in the Twin Ports!
Overall though, it felt like a relatively mild winter. I was definitely expecting worse. We will see what next winter has in store.