At the 2023 Rural Economic Outlook Conference, Farm Director KC Sheperd had the chance to talk with the Chief Meteorologist of KKTV News in Colorado Springs, Brian Bledsoe.
One of the topics Bledsoe touched on at the conference is the role the Pacific Ocean plays in weather patterns.
“The Pacific is so important in how our weather, not only short term, but long term, gets governed,” Bledsoe said. “For the past three years, the Pacific overall has been in a very cold state. We have had not only a broad scale but also with the La Nina episode, we have been dealing with more dryness than not for a large part of the mid-section of the country.”
The big talk now, Bledsoe said, is the El Nino that is coming on. Bledsoe said there has been some mixed messaging on the arrival of El Nino, and it won’t exactly cure every problem regarding drought.
“The thing to keep in mind right now is that the Pacific overall is still cold in that long-range cycle, despite the fact we have this El Nino here,” Bledsoe said. “While we might have good moisture, I think going forward here for the next few months, the fact that the Pacific is cold needs to be in the back of our minds, and we need to be looking out for potential dryness late in ’24 and possibly even in ‘25.”
Bledsoe also said there are three different types of El Nino depending on where the warm pool sets up along the Equator in the central and eastern Pacific Oceans.
“The different variations of it can have different outlooks and different impacts in different places, and I think that is the message that is very important is that not every El Nino is the same, and there are always going to be different impacts and overall ‘flavors’ of impacts, depending on where you live in the country,” Bledsoe said.
Looking into winter, Bledsoe said the midsection of the country may see some colder temperatures this year.
“I think there is an opportunity for it to not only be colder than average but also wetter than average,” Bledsoe said. “I think that is especially true the further south you go.”
Bledsoe also said Oklahoma could possibly see a wetter spring.
“I am a lot less concerned about moisture the first half of ’24 than I am for the back,” Bledsoe said. “I still think there will be some El Nino influence going on, and we won’t immediately go right back to that dry stuff, but I think that drier pattern is something we definitely need to pay attention to later on in 2024.”
Regarding the weekly drought monitor, Bledsoe said if a person feels like the information is not accurate for their part of the state, there are things they can do to submit feedback.
“We had some of those problems in Colorado, so what I did is I contacted the state climatologist in Colorado and also the drought mitigation center in Lincoln, Nebraska,” Bledsoe said. “Those folks love to hear from people. Especially if they know their product maybe isn’t serving the folks in that region.”
