Douglas: Sunny and 50 Sunday; rainy Monday and Tuesday

On Friday’s broadcast of “Almanac” on TPT2, Eric Eskola asked me why an expected absence of El Niño this upcoming winter might lead to more snow and cold than last year. My live answer was sufficiently vague, but here is the correct answer.

El Niño warming phases in the Pacific often “hijack” the jet stream to blow stronger, and from west to east across North America. A west wind is relatively mild, and consistently strong “zonal” west to east winds can keep arctic air bottled up to our north much of winter. A weak cool phase (La Niña) is kicking in and I would gamble (someone else’s money) on an “average” winter with more cold fronts and close to normal snowfall (52 inches).

Expect sunshine and 50 Sunday. The normal high at MSP is 42, so I’m not griping. A storm tracking north out of Texas may drop an inch of rain from late Monday into Tuesday, ending as a little Wednesday slush over southwest Minnesota. We cool off to normal (30s and low 40s) from late week into Thanksgiving.