{"id":241502,"date":"2026-04-09T05:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241502\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T05:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:02:09","slug":"strongest-el-nino-in-140-years-what-this-means-for-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/241502\/","title":{"rendered":"Strongest El Ni\u00f1o in 140 years? What this means for Texas."},"content":{"rendered":"

After a fairly warm and dry winter, a \u201cSuper\u00a0El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>\u201d could spell rainy seasons later in 2026 for Texas. There\u2019s debate just how warm ocean surfaces will stay as the Northern Hemisphere shifts towards fall, but will a strong (possibly record breaking) heat up on the water become a drought ender<\/a>?<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, an El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> means a cooler and wetter fall and winter season for Texas as warmer ocean waters impacts atmospheric conditions. Already, meteorologists and climatologists are forecasting a very strong El Ni\u00f1o <\/a>beginning in late spring and lasting through the end of the year.<\/p>\n

But whether or not this will be a record-setting system is still unclear, so whether it will cut back the years of drought accumulation in Texas is also a mystery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne good year of won\u2019t eliminate 6 years of water deficit unless it\u2019s exceptionally wet, like in 1957-58,\u201d the National Integrated Drought Information System warns. \u201cThose years also saw historic floods that led to fatalities and devastating destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Southwest and Southern Plains have been deemed under drought conditions<\/a> for almost six years, meaning it\u2019s going to take a lot of rain that actually seeps into aquifers to reverse the lasting impacts. What\u2019s often not realized is that quick rounds of heavy rainfall are not enough to replenish these underground, or above ground, water sources due to runoff \u2013 soaked soil stops absorbing as much water which feeds aquifers.<\/p>\n

Many days of decent rainfall over long periods of time would be needed to make a serious dent in the consequences of prolonged drought. Plus, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the Southern Plains need heavy winter snowpack on the tips of mountains upstream from the Rio Grande and Pecos rivers to stave off drought.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the poor existing snowpack in this region, current runoff forecasts are below normal,\u201d the NIDIS notes when warning this \u201cSuper El Ni\u00f1o\u201d may not be the drought reverser folks are hoping for.<\/p>\n

While this strong El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> is slated to develop in May, it\u2019s largest impacts will likely come later in the year. Currently, there\u2019s a 62% chance of development, according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a fairly warm and dry winter, a \u201cSuper\u00a0El Ni\u00f1o\u201d could spell rainy seasons later in 2026 for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[820,3091,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-241502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-mysastaff","9":"tag-mysawx","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}