Last week, the Climate Prediction Center released their outlooks for February and beyond. There is nothing exciting to report for Illinois. Both the outlook for February and the 3-month outlook for February-April have us in “EC” or equal chances of above, below, and near-average temperature and precipitation. See map below (click to enlarge). That’s not bad news – it means there are no increased risks of a colder than average winter.
If you look at the temperature outlooks for all three-month periods ahead out to 2016, (map below, click to enlarge), you can see that the March-May and the April-June outlooks show portions of Illinois with an increased chance of above-average temperature before it disappears. After that there is an increased chance for above-average temperatures to our west and east.
The outlooks for precipitation out to 2016 are pretty dull across the central US (map below, click to enlarge). In winter, spring, and early summer, there is an increased chance of above-average precipitation in the Southwest. That may be good news for an area plagued by drought in recent years. Meanwhile, in Illinois we remain in EC – equal chances of above, below, and near-average precipitation.
Reblogged this on Angie and Martin's Side-yard Urban Farm and commented:
As you prepare your seed orders for this year, here’s the Climate Prediction Center’s take on temperatures and precipitation for the coming year. While taking it with a grain of salt, as all such predictions are calculated guesswork, I think there’s reason to expect we won’t be seeing the cool summer of last year.