El Niño talk cancelled due to … El Niño
The Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association had planned to host a meteorologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Tuesday, Jan. 5, to discuss the “Godzilla El Niño,” but the presenter was unable to make it due to Tuesday’s storm.
Chris Smallcomb, Warning Coordinator Meteorologist for the National Weather Service, was unable to drive from Reno to Mammoth Lakes due to a winter storm that continued to rage across the Sierra as of press time. According to Mammoth Mountain, 30 to 43 inches of new snow have fallen on the mountain as of Thursday morning.
El Niño is characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, according to NOAA. Every two to seven years the central and eastern equatorial Pacific warms for six to 18 months, and then cools, for reasons scientists still don’t fully understand, The Weather Channel reported. Most models set forth by the organization indicate that a strong El Niño will affect the Northern Hemisphere during the winter of 2015-16 and weaken in late spring or early summer of 2016. The event generally brings wetter and cooler temperatures to the southern half of the nation, and drier and warmer temperatures to the northern tier of states. Though no two events are the same, typically California receives the bulk of its precipitation between January and March in an El Niño year.
Data released this week by NOAA said that the current El Niño event has now tied the strongest event on record, the El Niño of 1997-98.
Tuesday’s storm set rainfall records in Southern California, according to the National Weather Service. At Los Angeles International Airport, 1.42 inches of rain fell on Jan. 5, beating the record set in 1979 by a tenth of an inch.
L.A. County public works officials told ABC News that catch basins in Southern California captured 400 million gallons of runoff from rain on Tuesday.
Flash flood warnings were issued for areas damaged by wildfire during last summer’s drought-fueled fire season, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told ABC News that officials in the city have mapped homeless encampments for the first time in order to warn transients to evacuate low-lying areas in anticipation of the storm. A stretch of the 101 Freeway near Ventura was temporarily closed due to flooding on Tuesday, and a driver was stranded when his car was partially submerged near the Sepulveda Basin, according to multiple news sources.
The 1997-98 El Niño event was also characterized by extreme flooding in California. A series of storms in February 1998 killed 17 people and caused approximately $550 million in damage, according to The Weather Channel.
While the event is a welcome reprieve for snow-lovers and drought-parched Californians, most experts agree that one season of above-average precipitation is unlikely to put a significant dent in the state’s water shortage.
Mike Halpert, Deputy Director of NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said that “California would need close to twice its normal rainfall to get out of drought, and that’s unlikely.”
