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SCIENCEMonday 15 February 2016
Where did El Nino go? Heat, dry spell stoke drought worry
BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER Two beach goers play horse shoes in the sand, Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, in Seal Beach, Calif. Ten days “been awesome. It’s been
ASSOCIATED PRESS with record heat and no rain have Californians worrying about the drought again. great. But it’s not going to
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) -- last,” he said. “It’s still win-
Where did El Nino go? Associated Press ter.”
Winter has suddenly Californians are particularly
switched off the rain and been looking for a robust “It’s nice to have the searcher at Scripps Institu- concerned about whether
flipped on heat up to 95 and rainy El Nino to bring weather, but we hope to tion of Oceanography in the warm stretch is melting
degrees in California, rais- it out of mandatory water have the rain,” Tia Gavin San Diego. He has been the above-average snow-
ing jitters that the strong cutbacks. of Santa Rosa said as she taking note of early bloom- pack in the Sierra Nevada.
El Nino might not be the showed out-of-town visitors ing flowers as he drove to The snow generally pro-
drought-buster the crispy around the adobe central work this week. vides about a third of the
state had hoped. plaza of the wine country Strong El Ninos such as the state’s water when it thaws
“Forget El Nino, this is El town of Sonoma. Strollers one this year typically bring in the spring.
No-no!” YouTube celebrity in shorts surveyed restau- strong rain, Iacobellis said.
Hannah Hart tweeted. rant windows and lolled on However, there have been There again, not to worry,
Heat records have fallen blankets on green grass un- few modern El Ninos on forecaster Travis Wilson
across the West in recent der the sun. the scale of this one, mak- said.
days, from Oregon to Phoe- ing comparisons trickier, he Parts of the Sierras broke
nix to Los Angeles, where The dry spell came after El said. heat records on at least
surfers hit the beaches and Nino dropped near-normal National Weather Service two days this month, but
golfers strolled fairways. rain and snow earlier this forecasters were quick to nights have all fallen below
Much of California marked winter. offer soothing messages of freezing, keeping the pre-
its 10th straight day on Fri- “If you just looked at the drizzle yet to come. cious new snow intact, he
day without measurable precipitation, you wouldn’t “No need to be con- explained.
precipitation. The blue skies think that there was an El cerned,” forecaster Steve The heat is expected to
were increasingly unwel- Nino going on,” said Sam Anderson said. peak around Monday, with
come in a state that just Iacobellis, a climate re- The balmy weather has more record highs possible
logged its four driest years all the way to Washington
on record. California has state and in parts of Arizo-
na. More seasonal weather
patterns were expected
to bring some rain back to
California midweek.
Californians are adjusting in
the meantime. Bryan Stra-
nahan had to do some-
thing unusual for this time
of year when he went out
Friday to run errands in Los
Angeles.
“I normally don’t have to
look for a shady parking
spot until August or Sep-
tember,” the New York na-
tive said.
“I’m not complaining,” he
added.q
