Forecast turns neutral for fall and winter

Layla Osieczonek walks beagle Tucker on Stockbridge Avenue in Iron Mountain on Sunday. It was an unusually warm weekend for October, with unofficial highs in the 80s both days that neared or surpassed local records for the dates. (Terri Castelaz/Daily News)

IRON MOUNTAIN — After a warm start to fall, the National Weather Service is serving up a neutral forecast stretching into winter across the Upper Peninsula.

From now through December, above-normal temperatures are favored over much of the U.S., but the upper Great Lakes is an exception, NWS forecaster Anthony Artusa said.

Forecasters expect a weak La Nina to emerge, fading by late winter and spring. La Nina, the cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, is linked to colder- and stormier- than-average conditions