SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - Climatologists say it's rare when a La Nina is sandwiched between two El Nino's in three years, but that may happen later this year.
Dennis Todey, head of the Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, Iowa, says indications are that an El Nino will return but not until late summer or early fall.
Todey says it would be an infrequent occurance of the ocean warming event. He says it's happened only once in the last 50 years where there's been a strong El Nino, then to a La Nina and back to El Nino in consecutive years. He says only time it happened was in the mid 60's.
He says if El Nino returns, it would impact our winter. He says the greatest uknown is how strong the El Nino will be. He says none of the models indicate that this will be a strong El Nino because that would be even more unprecedented.
Still, Todey says, there will be an El Nino and "the weaker El Nino conditions have a little bit different connotation sometimes than others."
El Nino warms Pacific Ocean waters and can often cause weather extremes in North America.
(Thanks Jerry Oster, WNAX Yankton)