It’s challenging to predict the precipitation for a whole season,
but particularly during an El Niño year. An El Niño warms
the ocean’s surface, which changes the structure of the atmosphere, including
shifting the position of the jet stream and it changes where the weather patterns
are. Observations from NASA’s GPM mission help us monitor
the impacts of these changes, particularly in drought-weary California,
which scientists predicted would get substantial rains this winter due to the
El Niño. This Rainfall accumulation map from December
reveals how El Niño storms provided some relief to the Golden State.
Storms passing through Northern California brought up to 34
inches of rain to the northern coast and added water to the state’s reservoirs.
In early January very heavy storms were
seen in Southern California. Over the course of a couple of days,
Los Angeles was hit with nearly 3 inches of rain, which is
more than half the rain the city received in all of 2015.
Meanwhile San Francisco received more rain in January than it had
in the last 5 Januarys combined. But El Nino
effects appeared to lose momentum in February, which was extremely dry,
showing just how variable an El Niño can be. The effects
of this year’s El Niño still have several months to emerge. And it’ll be interesting to
see how things play out. Although we know the rains from this winter won’t
solve California’s water crisis, our observations from space
will allow us to see how closely reality matches the predictions.