No big changes in current weather patterns

Potential for some precipitation in early April

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Published: March 22, 2023

,

Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures in degrees Celsius for the week centred on March 15, 2023. (CPC.ncep.noaa.gov)

MarketsFarm — With spring officially underway, don’t expect a lot of major changes in the current weather patterns across the Canadian Prairies and the U.S. northern Plains, according to Drew Lerner of World Weather Inc. at Overland Park, Kansas.

“For the rest of March, it’s status quo, it will stay cold. We’re not going to see a big increase in precipitation across the Prairies,” Lerner said.

As for the northern Plains, he said there will be waves of snow and a little bit of rain. Then come April, that is to shift to more rain and less snow as temperatures turn somewhat warmer.

Read Also

No big changes in current weather patterns

Australia’s weather bureau casts doubt on prospects for La Nina

Australia’s weather bureau is not convinced that a La Nina weather pattern is forming that could change rainfall patterns and bring wilder weather to parts of the Americas, Asia and Oceania, affecting crop production.

On the Prairies during the first half of April, Lerner pointed to some short-term changes with some warming and the potential for a little more precipitation.

“No major storms necessarily, maybe a more organized storm system or two might occur,” he said.

Come the second half of April, Lerner said to expect more cold air, especially across the eastern half of the Prairies and the upper Midwest as temperatures slip back a little from normal. However, he expects Alberta to remain warmer.

As the La Nina comes to an end after three years, there’s an El Nino forming, but Lerner doesn’t expect it to have any great affect on North American weather until the winter.

“There are a lot of other weather patterns that are on the way that will be dominating North America for the next six to seven months,” he said.

“Once [the El Nino] develops, winter will be drier and warmer than normal on the Prairies and probably the northern Plains too.”

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

explore

Stories from our other publications