(KTLA-TV) This fall and winter’s predicted El Niño has the potential to become the most powerful ever recorded and could bring “extreme rainfall” to parched California, but it may not be enough to reverse four years of drought, federal forecasters said Thursday.
“Everything now is going to the right way for El Niño,” Patzert said. “If this lines up to its potential, this thing can bring a lot of floods, mudslides and mayhem.”
Data showing continued warm sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean were leading to the prediction of a strong El Niño to peak in late fall or early winter, according to a monthly report released Thursday by the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center.
The August report shows a greater than 90 percent chance of El Niño continuing through the Northern Hemisphere in winter, and a roughly 85 percent chance of it lasting until early spring.
