According to Bill Patzert, who works as a climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this year’s El Niño is now “too big to fail.”
The report, which was originally published by the LA Times, has Californians wondering how much rain and snow will fall on the drought ridden state over the winter months? Although future rainfall and snow amounts are impossible to determine, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction center is saying that the chances of an above average winter are 66%.
“The winter over North America is definitely not going to be normal”- NASA Climatologist Bill Patzert
Recently, ocean temperatures in the Pacific have continued to rise and a weakening trade wind system are both tell-tale signs that an El Niño trend is here to stay through the winter!
“If you look at the really big El Niños, that’s ’82-’83 and ’97-’98, essentially the whole state got hosed, from north to south… For instance, Northern California, Sacramento, got almost double the rainfall, and we certainly got double here in L.A.”– NASA Climatologist Bill Patzert
During those years, modular homes in Huntington Beach were inundated by flood waters and mudslides destroyed homes perched on the sides of hills surrounding Los Angeles.