The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says La Nina has left the building.  Forecasters say the ocean surface has moved away from La Nina and we have now moved into a neutral position.

They say the forecaster consensus is very confident that neutral conditions will remain through the spring and that means ” the tropical Pacific Ocean will not be an actor on the world’s climate stage.” Many of the forecasters’ computer models are predicting a transition into El Niño sometime later this year but they admit this is a tricky time of year for modelling.

This La Nina started in September 2020 and influences the hurricane season resulting in 14 hurricanes in the Atlantic in the 2022 season which included the devastating impact of Hurrican Fiona. La Nina is also to blame for our colder winter and slow start to spring on the prairies.

Meanwhile, Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement for much of southern Saskatchewan and are forecasting possible snow and blowing snow Friday night through Saturday along the Trans-Canada Highway and south from east to west.

A developing low-pressure system in Montana will spread snow into southern Saskatchewan on Friday night. The snow is forecast to begin in southwestern Saskatchewan on Friday evening and as much as 10 to 20 cm of snow is possible in some areas with this system, but there is uncertainty with its track. The system could end up further south which could substantially decrease the amount of snow that would fall across the southern Prairies.