Winter Weather

It’s been an unseasonably nice November. But with winter around the corner, can we expect what we saw last year? Reporter Kate Schell travels to the National Weather Service to find out what they're forecasting. It's no suprise that winters in North Dakota are cold, but what is suprising was just how cold and how snowy last winter was. (John Paul Martin/National Weather Service, Meteorolgist) "It was the second snowiest winter on record in the Bismarck Mandan area and also temperatures of 44 below zero, the second coldest temperature every recorded in North Dakota." But, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Bismarck say...this winter should be pretty different. (John Paul Martin/National Weather Service, Meteorolgist) " The National Weather Service forecast for the winter is for temperatures to be a little bit above normal and snowfall to be about normal." Normal snowfall is about 50 inches...which is half of what we saw last winter. Meterologist expect between 45 and 55 inches of snow to fall this year. So, why the big difference? (John Paul Martin/National Weather Service, Meteorolgist) "One thing we are looking at, last year we had whats called an effect from La Nina this year we are looking at an affect from El Nino. But, typically when people hear El Nino its going to be a very mild winter and very dry, but we think at the NWS office in Bismarck we think that the El Nino will be diminished a little bit so that we will end up a little bit above normal on temperature, but not really very mild and we will end up about normal on precipitation instead of wetter." But sometimes you have to take the good, with the bad. They expect this warmer and not as wet winter...to stick around a while longer. (John Paul Martin/National Weather Service, Meteorolgist) "It really looks like the months of December and January are going to be on the milder side. Once we get maybe halfway through February and into March it looks like things are going to cool down and I...