Austin meteorologist Bob Rose says the federal Climate Prediction Center made the call Monday and the weather service will issue a news release on it tomorrow. Big rains a’comin’, probably.
"…the Climate Prediction Center stated that atmospheric conditions and oceanic temperatures in the Pacific have reached a critical threshold to declare El Nino conditions. Water temperatures in the tropical Pacific have been warming over the past couple of months. This warming combined with increased westerly trades and a negative Southern Oscillation Index all indicate the onset on El Nino.
"…El Ninos often bring Texas and the southern US increased rainfall during the fall and winter months. They also tend to bring our region cooler temperatures during the winter. El Nino will likely play a large role in our region’s weather over the next several months."
Like they say, in Texas it’s either droughtin’ or floodin’. We’ve had the former for almost a year (some say more) and the latter looks to be on the way. Some of the fall-winter storms we’ve had in El Nino years have been hellacious.
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