LaNina has been weakening and may be completely gone before the 2017 planting season starts, but forecasters aren’t totally writing it off. Nebraska State Climatologist Al Dutcher says right now the ocean temperatures in the Pacific are cooling and the Atlantic sea temperatures are warming which is a good indication LaNina is dying and will go to a neutral phase.

He says however, there is a lack of confidence in the models in predicting a LaNina event, but we should know for sure if LaNina will impact the growing season by spring.

Dutcher says the only thing that keeps him from totally writing off LaNina is the drought in the southeastern United States. He says that’s because that is where the last multi-year drought started.

He says 50-percent of the forecast models kill LaNina before March.