What a super El Niño means for Minnesota's winter

November has been off to an unusually wet and warm start across Minnesota due to El Niño. Some communities have already picked up 4 inches of rain to start off the month. Climatologist Kenny Blumenfeld says the moisture can be traced right back to the Pacific, home of the ongoing super El Niño. "It's basically the greatest climate warming event of our lifetime, and of the lifetimes of anyone we're related to. And it's also quite likely producing record amounts of moisture. And so when you can tap into that moisture, it can fuel really bizarre behaving weather systems. And that's exactly what happened," Blumenfeld said. Not only has it been unusually wet, but it's been really warm too. Especially October, which was the third warmest on record in the Twin Cities. "The first two thirds of our meteorological fall have been quite warm. We started November 20 degrees above normal over the first three days. So we are, yeah, we are in a unique place for sure," said Blumenfeld. And even more warmth is on the way. According to the climate prediction center, we are locked into El Nino thru winter. They say it's very likely November stays wamer than average for the entire area. But even beyond that, the outlook looks warmer than average through at least the end of January. "The shape of those mild conditions is really going to be determined by snowfall," said Blumenfeld. "You just can't be as warm when there's snow on the ground. And so, and the deeper the snow, the greater that effect is." The Twin Cities just experienced its first freeze of the season Friday morning. It's the third latest freeze on record. In: El Nino Featured Local Savings