Forecasting U.S. Cotton Belt Weather

What’s in store for Cotton Belt weather? Brad Rippey, meteorologist with the United States Department of Agriculture, is the “man in the know” as far as how the weather could go…

“If you look at all the indicators in the ocean, we have moderately cool water in the equatorial Pacific, central and eastern part of that zone, and we have very warm water all around that especially in the north Pacific, very warm water in the Atlantic Basin. And all the signs are still pointing toward at least a La Nina-esque winter even if we don’t meet that official definition.”

That’s a lot of meteorologist talk, right? Let’s get down to brass tacks…

“And what that means is that for a lot of the southern tier of the United States, stretching all the way from southern California to the southern Atlantic coast, we are expecting a mid-to-late winter period that should be warmer than average and also drier than average.”

Brad Rippey, USDA meteorologist, going off of information recently released by official forecasters at the National Weather Service in their winter and spring outlooks