A rare third year of La Niña is on deck for California, forecasters say
A rare third year of La Niña is on deck for California, forecasters say
La Niña is back by the name of El Niño, a name that means “the strong one” in the native language of the Central Americans who make up the majority of the state’s population, and has been a more than a good thing for California weather.
The National Weather Service office in San Francisco is watching for El Niño conditions to reemerge after a long period of below average rainfall and rising temperatures.
The two events are considered distinct, but both affect the state’s climate in different ways.
This third year of El Niño is on deck, according to the climate service office in Berkeley.
“We are well into the strong El Niño phase of the cycle,” said meteorologist Bill Patzert. “We are going for a record-breaking rainfall year with a storm total that will equal or surpass even the record-breaking rainfall from this event that occurred back in 1998.”
El Niño is a period of warm ocean waters that cycle into and out of the jet stream that influences weather around the world.
For example, the El Niño of 1998 brought heavy rains and floods across New Zealand, where New Zealanders lost their lives and hundreds of homes.
El Niño is considered an average or neutral weather pattern in California, but it does have its benefits.
Rain is abundant after every El Niño and the California water problems that cause the state to run out of water earlier are also lessened as a result.
The two events have similar climate effects.
While El Niño is an average weather pattern, there are distinct differences in its timing, according to a recent study.
Both bring rainfall and heat to the state before the first wave of runoff hits the ground, and with the second wave, both events increase California’s risk of flooding when the rain hits.
However