La Niña Weakening as Expected
La Niña conditions continue to break down as expected, though the atmosphere is still being influenced by the phenomenon. Global weather is expected to go through some changes in the next few months and pockets of anomalous conditions will be possible in various places as the atmosphere loses the influence from La Niña and falls back to a more “normal” weather pattern, according to World Weather Inc.
World Weather says, “The latest data clearly shows La Niña weakening quickly, but after nearly three years of influence on the world’s atmosphere it will take a while for some of the anomalies to breakdown and/or dissipate. That means drought in Argentina, drought in the central U.S. Plains and wet biased conditions in South Africa, Brazil, Southeast Asia and other areas around the world should have opportunities for change in the next few months. One of the features that is often quite obvious in the upper air wind flow pattern in the Northern Hemisphere spring seasons of a weakening or diminishing La Niña event is the development of many splits and cutoffs in the jet stream. In the past, some of these cutoff areas of low pressure have evolved in the southwestern United States and drifted into the southern Plains a part of the Midwest and Delta, resulting in a higher level of repetition in rainfall and cool biased conditions. This is expected in the next few months and the result should be relief for some of the dry areas of the U.S Plains, including hard red winter wheat areas. This year’s changing weather pattern is expected to lock out precipitation from the northern U.S. Plains and in the southern Canada Prairies for a while during the late winter and spring and this may raise some concern for spring and winter crops in those areas, especially in southwestern Canada where a multi-year drought remains in place.”
Concern has been rising about the potential for El Niño, though that is not likely to evolve until late this year at the earliest, according to World Weather. The forecaster says, “For now, we believe El Niño development should come late enough in 2023 to avoid much influence on world weather during the Northern Hemisphere growing season, but the situation must be and will be closely monitored to determine if and when El Niño will begin.
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