A rare third year of La Niña is on deck for California, forecasters say.
The El Niño is the name given to a Pacific climate pattern that normally brings warmer Pacific water to California.
The El Niño of 2015 caused widespread flooding through California, killing more than 100 people.
“The El Niño of 2015 did not come alone. It came because of the La Niña of last year and all the El Niño events since,” said state climatologist Ryan Maue, who has been tracking La Niña and El Niño. “The El Niño and La Niña of 2015 formed a duo, which have kept California warm and dry.”
La Niña, Maue said, is the third year of an average, non-El Niño period occurring about every 20 years from 1975 to 2025. During the El Niño of 2015, the Pacific Ocean did not warm as much as usual. “And so we get La Niña, which is a weaker El Niño with less water,” said Maue. “We expect a La Niña to be around for the next three-to-fifteen years.”
California’s weather is on the forefront of the global political and economic turmoil. As the largest economy in the world, the state plays a crucial role. The climate could be a factor in that.
“We can’t ignore this when the world is so politically polarizing,” Maue said.
How La Niña Makes The Global Climate Flip
La Niña is a strong El Niño when the Pacific Ocean warms but is a weak one when it’s cold.
Researchers can use this to predict how El Niño will affect the global climate because the strength of an El Niño is a function of the sea surface temperature (SST) of the eastern tropical Pacific. La Niña is a cold one and becomes strong El Niño when the temperature of the ocean rises and falls in an unusual way.
“We can use the relationship between La