It could be another mild winter here in Iowa.

Weathereye meteorologist Greg Tatro says though fall started off cooler than normal, they’re expecting the next several months will be warmer an dryer than usual.

“The ocean circulation in the Pacific is actually going to turn into an El Nino pattern and the water’s going be kinda warm off the South American coast.  So what’s kinda what we base our prediction off of, at least for this fall and even into early winter” says Tatro.   “Whenever we have an El Nino pattern that usually means for much of the central, northern plains we’re going to be seeing temperatures warmer than average, and for the most part our precipitation is going to be lower than normal.”

Tatro says it looks like the drought is likely going to continue as most of the rain will be generally along the Gulf coast and the cold air will be focused more along the Pacific coast.

Tatro says last winter we were in a La Nina pattern, which is different than El Nino, but he does expect this winter to feel like that of last year.