MINNESOTA – If you're looking forward to the cooler air that historically characterizes November, you may need to leave Minnesota.

A La Niña climate pattern should usher in colder, snowier weather more typical of winter. But that hasn't happened yet.

Fall temperatures were warmer than meteorologists originally expected. In fact, Minnesota will experience some of the warmest November temperatures in the United States.

The only places in the country where near-normal temperatures are expected in November are Southern California and other parts of the desert Southwest. Forecasts of unusually warm temperatures extending into December come amid growing fears that climate change will make summers hotter and warm weather will last well into the fall.

Earlier this fall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was confident another La Niña would develop this winter, but doubted it would be a strong pattern related to persistent cold weather and heavy snow or others precipitation will act.

El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, a natural climate pattern that causes predictable changes in the tropical Pacific. They are not the only weather factors, but El Niño generally favors warmer, drier weather, while the opposite is true with La Niña. Both can have an outsized effect in the winter months.

Meteorologists originally expected a La Niña to develop late last winter, which turned out to be the warmest on record in the continental U.S. and worldwide.