(Area) Last week Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, indicating six more weeks of winter.
Iowa’s State Climatologist doesn’t buy it. “Absolutely not,” laughs Justin Glisan. In fact, the ground hog has been wrong more than it has been right in the last decade. Over the last ten years if we go back to 2012 Punxsutawney Phil has only been correct 40% of the time, so we don’t put a lot of stock into that at all.”
Justin Glisan says a La Nina pattern persists which means above average probabilities of wetter conditions in the Ohio Valley through the Great Lakes, warmer conditions across the Mid-Atlantic States and Sun Belt, and colder temperatures across the Upper Midwest. But Iowa has no clear indication. “We are equal chance on both. So equal chance of above, below, or near average. So we turn back to the short term outlook and that’s where we are seeing a signal for possibly warmer and drier conditions for the first half of the month.” This week’s forecast brings mild conditions with highs in the 40’s and 50’s.
