May 2014, Newsletter: El Nino, the Drought and Groundwater

 

Anticipated El Nino storms may indicate wet winter to come ….

An irony of global warming is the unpredictability of weather patterns such as alternating hot and cold, wet and dry, windy and sultry, etc.  While last year we experienced the driest season of 120 years of record, a San Jose Mercury News article on May 8, 2014, stated, “Citing a huge mass of warm water that continues to move east toward South America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration increased its probability for El Niño developing next winter to 78 percent, up from 66 percent last month, and 36 percent in November.”  The article then quoted a NOAA scientist as saying it is still too soon to tell how much rain we will get, since El Nino can take place at various intensities.    In the meantime…..