Sustainability

El Niño has ‘Eerie Similarities’ to 2015

Alan Barrett

Alan Barrett

Higby Barrett LLC

The U.S. Climate Prediction Center (CPC) forecasts that there are 80 percent odds El Niño conditions will continue through spring and a 60 percent chance that the pattern will linger through summer.

CPC’s Emily Becker says the tropical Pacific has “eerie similarities to early 2015” when a strong El Niño developed, but she says it’s “far too early” to tell if that will happen this year.

Weather stories tend to have a negative crop focus, but on many occasions the outcome is a pleasant surprise. In 2015, a wet spring delayed planting across large areas of the Midwest, but better weather later in the year helped crops to finish strong. In fact, soybean yields notched a record at that time. A strong El Nino will change weather patterns, but that does not necessarily mean a poor yield.

Source: USDA