Anyone holding out hope that the tail end of spring would finally bring the promised rains of El Niño will be sorely disappointed to learn that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has officially declared the weather event to be over. As the LA Times reports, the agency has stated that they are "sticking a fork in this El Niño and calling it done." Once projected to usher in one of the wettest winters in SoCal history, the weather event was a disappointment in nearly every sense of the word. Now, as NOAA puts it, "the king is dead!"
For those with a morbid sense of curiosity, between October 1 and June 8, LA had 6.88 inches of rain. That’s even worse than the year before, when we had 7.71 inches in the same period. Most horrifyingly, it’s less than half the average total of 14.59 inches that normally falls during those months. Not only did Southern California miss out on above average rainfall; current drought conditions actually got somewhat worse during the El Niño season.
Of course, none of this should come as big news to SoCal residents. As early as March, it was pretty clear that the El Niño was a total bust. Still, it’s always fun to see meteorological officials helping themselves to a few slices of humble pie. "Everybody that was looking at it was expecting a ‘Godzilla’ El Niño," National Weather Service specialist Stuart Seto told the Times. "But nature has its way." The NOAA was even more vague in its explanation of why the weather event fell flat, saying only, "in short … no two El Niños are alike."
El Niño: Going, going.... gone [LA Times]
It's Official: This Year's 'Super El Niño' Was a Dud for Southern California [Curbed LA]
It's Probably Too Late For El Niño to Do Much Good in SoCal [Curbed LA]
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