What does El Nino mean for Manitoba's winter? CBC meteorologist John Sauder explains

The coming winter is expected to be affected by El Nino. CBC meteorologist John Sauder says the effects may not be good for North America, but it depends on location.

Here's his explanation of the weather pattern and what it means for conditions across the continent.

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What is El Nino?

In a normal winter season; right along the equator, there are trade winds, which mostly blow from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere.

Those winds tend to take warm ocean waters out into the western Pacific, and Asia and northern Australia get rainy seasons. 

In an El Nino year, all of that switches. 

The warm pool of water moves to the eastern Pacific, and the West Coast of South America gets the rainy season as drought sets in in the western Pacific, creating cool water, seafood shortages and dry conditions.

This happened in 1997 and winter 2015-16 is expected to resemble the conditions Canada saw in winter 1997-98.

What does El Nino mean for weather in Canada?

It's not always a good thing.

Along North America's West Coast, it could cause stormy weather, flooding and overall wet conditions.

In southern Manitoba, El Nino is expected to bring dry, warm conditions, but it's important to remember that El Nino has been studied for only 50 years so. It's a matter of waiting to see if the conditions it's expected to carry with it come true.