Mr. Answer Person tackles an El Nino question!

Dwight e-mails: "It was my understanding that this was an El Nino year, and based on that we were supposed to have a very bad winter.  This has to do with ocean temps and currents, etc…  Well, it's been anything but a bad winter...how could this year's predictions have been so far off?"

Mr. Answer Person says, "This is a weak El Nino winter and, as such, features slightly above normal temperatures and slightly below normal precipitation—which is exactly what has occurred."
 
But don't take my word for it!  Jeff Boyne is a forecaster at the National Weather Service Office in La Crosse who specializes in long-range predicting.  He says, "While there is warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures across the eastern and central equatorial Pacific which is typically indicative of an El Nino there are also warmer-than-normal temperatures in the western equatorial Pacific too.  This is not indicative of an El Nino."  Concludes Jeff, "This means that this winter is being affected by other factors other than El Nino."

Another meteorologist in La Crosse, Glenn Lussky, agrees with Jeff Boyne.  Says Glenn, "It is safe to say this very low end event didn't reflect an El Nino circulation pattern at all, and other impacts were much more important in driving our winter weather pattern."