You can safely put the galoshes back in storage. El Niño is so over.
Today the National Weather Service declared the weather phenomenon a thing of the past. Or, as the Washington Post quotes NOAA climate analyst Emily Becker, “We’re sticking a fork in this El Niño and calling it done.”
Even though it’s now gone, that doesn’t mean this El Niño cycle will soon be forgotten. Scientists are saying it will go down as one of the strongest ever recorded and it made a huge impact on local and global weather conditions. The Earth’s temperature in 2015 was the warmest yet—and 2016 is on track to beat that mark—due in some part to heat passing into the atmosphere from the hot pools in the Pacific Ocean created by El Niño.
While the worldwide effects were extensive—and we could still be dealing with some consequences of it, like the recent shark sightings along the coast—El Niño never really delivered the rain that thirsty Southern California desperately wanted. Now that all is said and done, the precipitation failed to hit even the average levels of a pre-drought year.
So what’s next now that this business is behind us? Scientists suggest we brace for a hot and extra dry period as La Niña prepares to land on our shores around late summer or early autumn. That pattern should continue for months, which means more rain in Indonesia—which is great for them after a season of El Niño-related fires there—but even less rain here, wiping out any moisture gains of the last year.