It's official. Today, weather forecasters announced what many people already knew. El Niño is back and it will bring along a rainy and warm winter. This rainfall will provide the Southern United States, especially California, with partial relief of its current drought. Along with El Niño, other weather events could affect the winter storm, some being the North Atlantic and Artic Oscillations. There is a 60 percent chance of a warmer winter all over the U.S. Although there will be a lot of rainfall in California, it will not be enough to erase the drought. California needs 2.5 times the amount of average annual rainfall to erase its current drought. Unfortunately, much of the rainfall will not stay in the mountain peaks as snow because the mountains in the north of the state tend to be in lower elevations, so much of the water will cause floods. The rainfall floods would be worse at areas where wildfires used to burn because the land does not have the "natural barriers the absorb water and slow down runoff."
Live Science Article: http://www.livescience.com/52494-strong-el-nino-winter-2015.html
Live Science Article: http://www.livescience.com/52494-strong-el-nino-winter-2015.html