Climate Cast: Weak La Niña may mean snowy winter is on deck

Last winter was the warmest on record in Minnesota — a perfect non-storm of conditions that included a strong El Niño combined with warming climate trends. But this year will be different thanks to a weak La Niña developing in the Pacific, said Kenny Blumenfeld, who tracks Minnesota's climate trends with the Minnesota State Climatologist office in St. Paul.

“People are going to love or hate this,” Blumenfeld said. “Our all-time record and seasonal snowfall was during a La Niña winter. And number three, which we just experienced in the 2022-’23 winter, that was 90.3 inches. That was a La Niña, too. You do tend to get a bit more snow, even in a weak La Niña compared to an El Niño type winter.”

The warming of the atmosphere plays a role in extra-snowy winters, Blumenfeld told MPR News chief meteorologist Paul Huttner. ”The warming of the planet obviously puts more water into the atmosphere, and that's one of the reasons that we're seeing the increased snowfall during the winter time.”

Click on the audio player above to hear the whole conversation.