After two year of La Niña conditions in the central Pacific, it looks like the tides could be turning. Well, not literally the tides, I guess.
But, the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said
Thursday that there is a 50 percent chance that the Pacific waters off the coast of South America could be entering a warming trend, which means El Niño. La Nina is when the ocean is cooler than normal.
Any temperature abnormalities in that part of the ocean can have wide affects on our weather here and across the world. La Niña, which ended the second of a double dip cycle this spring, can lead to warmer and drier conditions in this part of the country, which we experienced.
El Niño, on the other hand, can bring cooler and wetter weather to Oklahoma, but its affects here aren’t as extreme as other parts of the world.
The CPC said if El Niño conditions do show up, it won’t be until really August and then through the fall and winter.
One plus from that is that El Niño conditions tend to diminish the Atlantic hurricane season, which already had a near-normal forecast.
So, while this doesn't necessarily mean anything, and as we saw two winters ago when there was La Niña and we had a blizzard, weather is weather, and not climate. Despite trends in climate, individual weather events will still happen. Especially here. We like to be individuals.
--Jerry Wofford
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