A rare “ super El Niño ” is to blame for all the rain we got this week in Southern California. But the weather pattern may soon give way to its drier sister, La Niña.
“So it does look like this El Niño has peaked, and it is one of the strongest on record, one of the top five since 1950, but it looks like it’s on its way down,” Nat Johnson, scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told KNX News Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman. “But that doesn’t mean that it won’t be impacting the rest of this winter.”
El Niño, which tends to bring wetter weather to Southern California, typically only lasts one winter before transitioning to the comparatively dry La Niña.
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“So by spring, we expect to be in neutral conditions, and then maybe quickly transition to La Niña perhaps by this summer,” Johnson explained.
Here’s the catch: La Niña often persists for two or even three years in a row – in fact, the past three winters in Southern California have had La Niña conditions. Despite all the recent rain – which led to over a billion gallons of rainwater capture in L.A. this week alone – we could have several winters of dry weather ahead.