Despite a trend change for January and the early part of February, the Climate Prediction Center is still keeping its outlook intact for a warmer than normal late February and March.

Ed Shimon at the National Weather Service in Lincoln indicates the outlooks for January and early February have gone to a colder than average prediction but the late-February and March outlooks are holding strong.

According to Shimon, the La Nina winter is starting to weaken. He says this has been a relatively average La Nina weather pattern this time around.

Shimon indicates in a stronger La Nina winter, its impacts are felt in the January and February months but this time around it was mostly in December. He indicates it can make outlooks out of the Climate Prediction Center harder to anticipate.

Shimon calls the outlooks for late February and March prominent and persistent, so he feels confident the cold of this month will not last the entire winter.