forecast<\/a> has increased to 90%, compared to 81% a month ago, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, which puts out updates on the second Thursday of every month. The forecasted strength, however, has not changed.<\/p>\n“This El Ni\u00f1o could be one of the strongest in the historical records going back to 1950, but CPC indicates that is no guarantee that we will see ‘typical’ impacts everywhere,” NBC Los Angeles meteorologist David Biggar said.<\/p>\n
What is El Ni\u00f1o?<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o \u2014 which means little boy in Spanish \u2014 is a warming of ocean waters off the Pacific coast of South America, typically peaking during the winter months, that causes changes in atmospheric patterns. It’s a seasonal variation, not an individual weather system.<\/p>\n
As they take shape, there’s often an increase in Pacific hurricanes and a decrease in Atlantic ones. A warmer-than-average summer is also possible.<\/p>\n
However, no two El Ni\u00f1os are alike. They are just one part of a complex puzzle that makes up the atmosphere and day-to-day weather.<\/p>\n
Meteorological organizations, such as NOAA, use the following categories to describe El Ni\u00f1o intensities: weak, moderate, strong and very strong. The categorizations are based on how far the water temperature is from normal \u2014 not the impacts of El Ni\u00f1o. There is no official “super” category.<\/p>\n
Will Southern California have another wet winter this year?<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1os are not storms, nor do they generate storms or guarantee wetter winters. Some El Ni\u00f1o seasons have been dry, some wet and others are closer to average.<\/p>\n
Biggar says it’s still difficult to say whether we’ll see a wet winter this year. Our rainfall depends more on the number of atmospheric rivers, and the strength of them, through the winter.<\/p>\n
Was last winter an El Ni\u00f1o?<\/p>\n
No, the last two winters experienced La Ni\u00f1a conditions, which are the opposite of El Ni\u00f1o conditions.<\/p>\n
The most recent El Ni\u00f1o was in 2023-2024, and it was categorized as “moderate.”<\/p>\n
Our latest very strong El Ni\u00f1o was in 2015-2016, and it was one of the strongest on record. It ended up being one of the driest years ever for Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
One of California’s worst drought years also occurred during an El Ni\u00f1o in 1976-1977, but the following year’s El Ni\u00f1o had more than double our average rainfall with 31 inches of rain. Again, no two El Ni\u00f1os are alike.<\/p>\n
Is El Ni\u00f1o caused by climate change?<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o is a naturally occurring phenomenon. While climate change may influence the frequency, intensity and impacts of El Ni\u00f1o events, it does not cause them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s becoming more likely that the U.S. could see a very strong El Ni\u00f1o this year, the National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[443,48,52,51,47,50,49,19],"class_list":["post-435545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-climate-change","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}