There has been a lot of talk today about the report issued by the Climate Prediction Center about the strengthening El Nino in the Pacific Ocean and what may happen.
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“This definitely has the potential of being the Godzilla El Nino”, said Bill Patzert, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory meteorologist, adding, “Everything now is going the right way for El Nino“. “[With] abnormally hot water around the equator in the Pacific, it stuffs up all the wind and all the weather in the tropics and has really large implications for our Pacific neighbours”. Most folks around Lake Tahoe saw unusual amounts of thunderstorm activity during the month.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released updated forecasts on Thursday indicating warmer than normal temperatures in the northwestern United States and above normal precipitation in southern California through the southwestern U.S. and over Texas from October through April and May.
Chances are strong that a record-setting El Nino is headed toward California this winter.
“It could reach or exceed 2 degrees Celsius, a value we have only recorded three times in the last 65 years”, Halpert said on a conference call with reporters.
“We want the snowpack for sure”, said California’s state hydrologist, Maurice Roos. It tends to result in warmer conditions for Iowa and other states extending west to the Pacific Ocean.
They’re cautiously optimistic. Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, says farmers aren’t fooled by a common misconception that El Nino always translates into a wet winter.
But a strong El Nino likely won’t be a complete drought-buster for California.
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Schneider says he’s already gotten his fill of odd weather, so it was hard to be surprised by today’s announcement that the El Niño weather system could be one for the record books.
