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It’s challenging to predict the precipitation for a whole season,

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but particularly during an El Niño year. An El Niño warms

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the ocean’s surface, which changes the structure of the atmosphere, including

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shifting the position of the jet stream and it changes where the weather patterns

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are. Observations from NASA’s GPM mission help us monitor

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the impacts of these changes, particularly in drought-weary California,

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which scientists predicted would get substantial rains this winter due to the

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El Niño. This Rainfall accumulation map from December 

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reveals how El Niño storms provided some relief to the Golden State.

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Storms passing through Northern California brought up to 34

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inches of rain to the northern coast and added water to the state’s reservoirs. 

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In early January very heavy storms were

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 seen in Southern California. Over the course of a couple of days,

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Los Angeles was hit with nearly 3 inches of rain, which is

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more than half the rain the city received in all of 2015.

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Meanwhile San Francisco received more rain in January than it had

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in the last 5 Januarys combined. But El Nino

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effects appeared to lose momentum in February, which was extremely dry, 

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showing just how variable an El Niño can be. The effects

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of this year’s El Niño still have several months to emerge. And it’ll be interesting to

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see how things play out. Although we know the rains from this winter won’t

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solve California’s water crisis, our observations from space

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will allow us to see how closely reality matches the predictions.