We were promisedtorrential rain , “ conveyor belts ” of storms , violent - souse - on - malt - liquor anger . Now much of California isbroiling in 90 - degree temperatureswith no precipitation in mountain . What gives ? Do n’t care — El Niño did n’t bail . It might be even stronger than we thought .
For the preceding year or so , climatologists have been monish us about what to expect from El Niño : Warming sea temperature in the Pacific would fire a penalize series of tempest , hitting up and down the West Coast from December to April . And there have been at leastone or two storm that deliveredso far , includingsome wacky Christmas weatherand ascary book - shattering blizzard .
Already , however , this El Niño is dissemble differently than thelast big one in 1998 , Stanford University climate scientist Daniel Swaintells theLos Angeles Times :
With the geographical zone of warm water system in the ocean particularly big and persistent , the movement of warm air above it journey farther northward than expected . That mean the parade of storms zipping across the Pacific Ocean established a path over Northern California and even the Pacific Northwest — and bypassed Southern California , Swain said .
That may be the rationality why all but one tempest have missed L.A. over the last month . “ It may be because El Niño is so substantial . ”
Whoa . So all of the rain that was supposed to pip California actually lead far , far north . And California will keep baking under a gamey pressure organization that could deliverup to 10 day of no precipitation .
But hey ! If this is indeed what ’s happening — that El Niño is rip up so much gnar that it ’s ollying off the Canadian border — that ’s actually kind of adept , from a drought perspective . downfall head due north has a much beneficial chance to fall as C in the Sierras , Cascades , and Rocky Mountains , fill again the snowpack that render longsighted - term drought protection . Remember thePacific Northwest , Canada , and Alaskaalso hadhorrifically dry , wildfire - fill summers — so it ’s not like the wet weather is n’t very welcome there as well .
In fact we ’ve already witness some promising stats when it comes to El Niño violent storm and the drought . Reservoirs are fill back upand snowpack is at a astatewide average of 103 percentfor this time of class . Some of us have see enough precipitation to ratchet the state up a few notch on the drouth monitor meter — we’re back to levels that we have n’t seen insix days . But a third of California is still brook from exceptional drought , including the same region that ’s see the incredibly hot and dry conditions this week . Rain is still very much needed .
Of naturally there ’s also the possibility thatEl Niño is just run much , much later than we thoughtand the entire state will still get slammed as plan . But some predictor — including unity at NASA — conceive we ’ve already see peak El Niño , and that no more mucky blind drunk climate buss are headed our way . The next prescribed update is February 11 .
Sorry LA , keep your short pants out . It might be another recollective summertime .
[ LAT ]
Waves crash below an apartment construction that resident physician were forced to evacuate , at top center , in Pacifica , Calif. , Wednesday , Jan. 27 , 2016 . AP Photo / Jeff Chiu
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