![\"Heather](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790123531_171_7927b700-bd08-4d1e-9b95-443ac9b1f8a6_1683810531.file.png\")
<\/a>SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014<\/p>\nCalifornia leaders officially declared a State of Emergency on Monday<\/a>. The reason? El Ni\u00f1o and its potential to influence a stormier than normal winter on the West Coast. <\/p>\n This declaration allows emergency response resources to be readied and allocated ahead of any storm damage. <\/p>\n But it has prompted many questions over the past 24 hours. When will El Ni\u00f1o hit? How bad will it be? What should I do now?<\/p>\n Below are the answers to some of those big questions along with a check on the status of El Ni\u00f1o as of late September.<\/p>\n El Ni\u00f1o began in June<\/p>\n El Ni\u00f1o and La Ni\u00f1a patterns are tracked by measuring sea surface temperatures in a specific part of the tropical East pacific. When that water is warmer than normal for a three month period, an El Ni\u00f1o is declared.<\/p>\n Forecasters at NOAA declared an El Ni\u00f1o was present in early June. Since then, water temperatures have continued to rise and as a result, El Ni\u00f1o has continued to strengthen. <\/p>\n The most recent 3-month observation which covers June, July and August has the temperature at 1.36 degrees Celsius higher than normal. According to global standards, that reading indicates a “strong” El Ni\u00f1o is present. <\/p>\n Hearst Owned<\/p>\n The global standard for recording the strength of an El Ni\u00f1o or La Ni\u00f1a pattern relies on 3-month rolling averages of sea surface temperatures. The most recent observation spans June through August. According to that reading, a “strong” El Ni\u00f1o is present. More recent readings do show significantly higher temperatures, indicating that El Ni\u00f1o may be classified as “very strong” as early as next month.<\/p>\n More recently updated weekly readings show temperatures much higher. It is possible that El Ni\u00f1o may be classified as “very strong” as early as October. <\/p>\n NOAA’s September El Ni\u00f1o outlook highlighted a 75% chance that this year’s event could be the strongest in modern record. That record is +2.52 degrees Celsius during the winter of 1982 and 1983.<\/p>\n Very strong El Ni\u00f1o winters tend to be wet in California<\/p>\n And that is the most likely outcome this winter, but there is still a big range of possibilities for how things could go. <\/p>\n In general, the impacts of a major El Ni\u00f1o pattern are felt more strongly in Southern California than in Northern California. <\/p>\n Hearst Owned<\/p>\n NOAA\u2019s outlook for December, January and February favors wetter than normal conditions in California. The probability for wet conditions is higher for Southern California than Northern California. <\/p>\n Some of the concerns officials are trying to prepare for now center on coastal communities. Coastal flooding and erosion are a bigger threat this winter for a few reasons. <\/p>\n The combination of El Ni\u00f1o and a marine heat wave closer to the California coast has ocean temperatures running much warmer than normal. That warmer water takes up more space than cooler water, so water levels at the coast are also running higher than normal. That is likely to be the case through winter. <\/p>\n The highest tides of the year, known as king tides, are expected to occurring in late November, late December and late January. These higher tides layered with higher background ocean levels raise the risk for coastal flooding. <\/p>\n Hearst Owned<\/p>\n King tides will occur between November 24th and 26, December 23rd and 25th and January 21st through 22nd this winter. <\/p>\n If and when winter storms start rolling in, those higher water levels combined with the rough surf storms bring in can spell big trouble for coastal damage and erosion. <\/p>\n Of course, those types of storms can come in any winter, whether El Ni\u00f1o is tipping the scales or not. This year’s very strong El Ni\u00f1o does not guarantee a rough storm season, but it does increase the potential. <\/p>\n So what now?<\/p>\n The governor’s declaration of a “State of Emergency” can really be read as a “State of Preparedness” at this point. <\/p>\n Potential impacts from El Ni\u00f1o’s influence on winter are still months away. This is a good time to be thinking about any big winter readiness projects your property needs. Things like tree trimming, roof repairs and drainage issues should be addressed over the next couple of months. <\/p>\n This is also a good time to make sure you and your family have a plan in case of a flood emergency or major power outages. Have an emergency kit and go bag at the ready and know your evacuation route. These are good practices to have going into any winter season in California. <\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o: What to know as California leaders declare State of Emergency An El Ni\u00f1o pattern has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,37829,8,1436,1237,62241,10648,3978,36802,67584,185840,474,457,709,39590,87065,185842,10645,185841,266,62,35218,271,1009,225,6750,4104,4610,185843,490,3162,1068,72],"class_list":["post-472475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-leader","tag-california-news","tag-case","tag-coastal-erosion","tag-coastal-flooding","tag-el-nino","tag-emergency","tag-emergency-preparedness","tag-erosion","tag-flood-emergency","tag-forecast","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-governor-newsom","tag-king-tides","tag-marine-heat-wave","tag-month-period","tag-noaa","tag-normal-winter","tag-northern-california","tag-rain","tag-reason","tag-snow","tag-southern-california","tag-state","tag-state-of-emergency","tag-storms","tag-thing","tag-water-temperature","tag-west-coast","tag-winter","tag-winter-storm","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472475","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=472475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/b53689c8-d84f-47d8-84e0-f3df26469806.png\")
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