U climatologist skeptical of colder-than-normal winter forecast

MPR's Cathy Wurzer spoke with University of Minnesota climatologist Mark Seeley about a warm start to October.

He also says a national forecast that indicates a colder than normal winter for Minnesota would require a big change in weather trends.

"The trend we've been locked into all year has been persistently warm and so now the new winter outlook, November through March, is calling for a cooler and wetter season, and we're a bit baffled by that," he said.

"The climate pattern is so persistently warm. We haven't been locked into anything like this in a long, long time, and it's difficult to see it reversing itself. Even going into November, the first half of November's going to be warmer than normal, so we're going to see an about-face come into play, and it's going to have to be very profound to be that persistent."

Click on the audio player above to hear their conversation.