El Nino Picks Up Steam, Increases Chance For Wettest California Winter In

With all that said, Di Liberto said that the development of a strong El Nino is good news in terms of rainfall.

Scientists are releasing encouraging news on the drought.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology announced in May that El Nino thresholds have been reached in the tropical Pacific from the first time since March 2010.

It’s been a wild ride in the weather department, with the drought and Washington wildfire to start the summer, to beneficial rain and thunderstorms lately that have caused numerous flash floods – we’ve seen it all.

Latest seasonal computer forecast model data is now even more robust with the projected strength of El Nino by the winter with several models now forecasting near- to record-breaking strength.

They said the warm Pacific and trade winds are shifting, which are all signs pointing to a significant El Nino winter.

El Nino is a large-scale ocean-atmosphere phenomenon linked to the warming of the sea surface in the central and east central equatorial Pacific Ocean.

Meteorologists for much of previous year had been predicting an El Nino but it never emerged.

In the West, temperatures will likely still average above normal, but not too extreme with opportunities for some rainfall, especially in the mountains. Some were shut down for most of this past season due to lack of snowfall.

The last El Nino in 2009-10 was a strong one, while the previous one, in 2006-07, was weak to moderate, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Averaging them out, this is what we came out with for temperature and precipitation rate anomalies for the fall and winter.