Weather has been a little weird for the central part of the United States this summer.

State Climatologist Justin Glisan says that drought conditions should start to improve as the colder months arrive, and bring some regular weather patterns back as the El Nino system really takes hold.

“We’ve been in El Nino since spring, and it really takes hold in the cold season. So as we move through fall into winter, that’s where we start to see El Nino dominate the weather pattern and impact where the jet stream sets up over the United States.”

Glisan mentions that this El Nino has been odd though, and storms that would regularly come through with it have not. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio why that is.

“And typically in El Nino years, the Atlantic and the Gulf tropical seasons are tame. We don’t really see any tropical development, and that’s what we haven’t seen this go around. So that’s impacted the storm track over the central United States, given that those hurricanes just basically block any kind of weather patterns that move access the continental United States.”

Glisan explains that tropical activity in the Atlantic and Gulf has actually increased compared to usual this year, and there have been several category four hurricanes that have occurred. He adds that some of the unexpectedly warm weather can actually be beneficial, as the central United States won’t see frost levels go as deep into the soil with that extra warmth, which will allow more snow melt and any rainfall to be absorbed by the ground better.