North Dakota
How El Niño could impact the rest of winter and into spring in ND when compared to long-term trends
BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – El Niño usually means milder winter temperatures in the Northern Plains and that was certainly the case in December. But what might be in store for the rest of winter and even into spring?
El Niño’s signal of warmth in the Pacific Ocean is evident and its strength is a big factor in our long-term outlook. But it’s not the only one.
We average out the past 30 years to get our climate normals, but those change over time.
“I think people who have lived in North Dakota for a while now have really started to notice the shifting of the seasons that we’re seeing with those longer-term trends. Warming in the fall and extending the plant season on that end with the harvest. But then winter seems to stick around in the spring a lot longer than we want it to and it’s kind of delaying that spring plant season,” said Megan Jones, a meteorologist at the Bismarck National Weather Service.
“When you look at the winter as a whole, there’s not really a strong trend across North Dakota. When you start looking at the month-by-month, December is pretty neutral, January’s warming a little bit, but then you start to see a strong cooling trend in February, specifically. And I think if you’re thinking back to the past couple of winters, it seems like February is always the worst month. And then as we go into the spring, when we got the new climate normals for 1991-2020, there was a pretty noticeable cooling trend,” said Jones.
The peak of El Niño might be occurring, which needs to be closely monitored to overcome the long-term climate trends.
“If the El Niño is strong enough to kind of keep us a little bit warmer and maybe shake off winter sooner than what we’ve had the past couple years, but sometimes the longer-term trends win out and we’ll be stuck with not quite spring conditions a little bit longer than we want,” said Jones.
The current outlook still slightly favors above normal temperatures, but as you get further into the spring season, that probability really starts to lessen.
“There’s always talk about warm and dry, cold and wet. A lot of the time, we don’t get those paired together necessarily. One of the things that we’ve seen from the historical El Niños, the stronger ones, the past two strong El Niños have been warm in the spring but they’ve also been wet. So it doesn’t necessarily mean snow, but it also doesn’t necessarily mean dry,” said Jones.
Even if it’s rain, hopefully, that helps farmers to get into the fields sooner in the spring and ranchers with calving than the past two years that featured blizzards in April.
Near normal precipitation is expected for late winter and into spring, but it only takes the track of one storm to make a difference.
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GRAND FORKS — Langdon Area-Munich’s Hilary Haaven helped power the Cardinals to a North Dakota Class B state championship last weekend in Bismarck.
On Monday, she was one of four area players recognized with North Dakota Class B all-state honors.
Haaven and Park River-Fordville-Lankin’s Lauren Bell were all-state first team choices, while Drayton-Valley-Edinburg’s Elizabeth Fedje and Griggs-Midkota’s Kelsey Johnson received second team honors.
Haaven, just a freshman, recorded 23 kills and 39 digs in the state title match as Langdon Area-Munich repeated as state champions by pulling off a reverse sweep of Medina-Pingree-Buchanan. Haaven already surpassed 1,000 career kills in October.
Haaven was the only member of the 24-member all-state team who is younger than a junior in high school.
Bell, a junior middle hitter and repeat all-state choice from 2024, racked up 520 kills, 393 digs, 43 aces and 84 blocks this season.
Fedje, a senior middle hitter, racked up 521 kills and 296 digs. Fedje, who has been the D-V-E kill leader each season since 2022, has more than 1,300 career kills in 347 career sets played.
Johnson, a senior outside hitter, finished with 255 kills this season and 353 digs. She also had 31 aces and 12 blocks.
Brynn Sorenson of Medina-P-B was named the Outstanding Senior Athlete, while her coach Jacie Connell was named Coach of the Year.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Ivy League is participating in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the first time this season, and the conference will be well represented.
Yale, which defeated rival Harvard for the Ivy title on Saturday, and the Crimson are in the 24-team tournament field, which was announced on Sunday night on ESPNU. The Bulldogs (8-2) will play at Youngstown State (8-4), and Harvard (9-1) will play at Villanova (9-2).
“I am incredibly proud of our players and entire staff. They have poured their hearts into the work that brought us to this moment, and earning the opportunity to win a championship and become the first team to represent the Ivy League in the FCS playoffs makes it ever more special,” Yale coach Tony Reno said Saturday after the win. “Our players made a true commitment to one another and never stopped believing in our mission or in the goals we set together. This is an exceptional group of men, and I could not be prouder of everyone.”
In the 141st chapter of the rivalry known as The Game, Yale outlasted previously unbeaten Harvard, 45-28, as quarterback Dante Reno completed 15 of 19 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns in the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut.
“Our defense is one of the best in the league,” Reno, a sophomore, said. “They’ve been proving that all year. It took us a little bit to start offensively earlier this season, and we kind of clicked over the last couple of weeks.”
TWO BID IVY.@HarvardFootball and @yalefootball have earned bids to the @NCAA_FCS playoffs.
🌿 Harvard vs. No. 12 Villanova
🌿 Yale vs. No. 15 Youngstown State pic.twitter.com/3Md5RlFGiJ— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) November 23, 2025
At the top of the FCS board, defending national champion North Dakota State will lead a record-tying six teams from the Missouri Valley Football Conference into the tournament. The MVFC champion Bison (12-0) were named the No. 1 seed and will be making their 16th consecutive appearance.
All told, the field is made up of 11 automatically qualifying conference champions and 13 at-large selections. The first round begins Saturday with unseeded teams paired with teams seeded 9-16 primarily according to geographical proximity. The championship game is Jan. 5 at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
North Dakota State has won 10 of the past 14 FCS titles. The Bison beat St. Thomas-Minnesota 62-7 on Saturday to extend their winning streak to 16 games.
Montana State (10-2), the runner-up to NDSU last year, earned the No. 2 seed after beating rival Montana 31-28 to clinch the Big Sky Conference championship. Montana (11-1) is the No. 3 seed. Tarleton State (11-1) of the United Athletic Conference is the No. 4 seed.
Patriot League champion Lehigh (12-0) is No. 5, Southern champion Mercer (9-2) is No. 6, Southland champion Stephen F. Austin (10-2) is No. 7 and the Big Sky’s UC Davis (8-3) is No. 8.
The top eight seeds receive a first-round bye and will play their second-round game at home.
The rest of the first-round games are: Illinois State (8-4) at SE Louisiana (9-3); Central Connecticut State (8-4) at Rhode Island (10-2); North Dakota (7-5) at Tennessee Tech (11-1); New Hampshire (8-4) at South Dakota State (8-4); Drake (8-3) at South Dakota (8-4); and Lamar (8-4) at Abilene Christian (8-4).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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