Ames, IA (KICD)– As previously reported, the National Weather Service released its outlook for the upcoming winter and one area expert is talking more detail of what we could expect in Northwest Iowa and Southwest Minnesota.

Dennis Todey is the Director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub in Ames. He says the return of an El Nino pattern after three years of La Nina will likely spell out a different situation for our part of the country.

Where the questions still really sit though are in the precipitation category with no clear signals for being above or below average really prominent at this point.

Our area could its first look at more a late fall to early winter pattern later this week into the weekend with highs by Saturday only in the 30s along with a chance of a wintry mix.